- Title: States pledge more than $3 bln for refugees, as asylum "under threat" - U.N.
- Date: 18th December 2019
- Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (DECEMBER 18, 2019) (REUTERS) GRANDI AT PODIUM DURING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES FILIPPO GRANDI, SAYING: "States also pledged at least $3 billion in additional resources, so in addition to the World Bank and other pledges. $3 billion. And the private sector pledge 250 million by itself. So, there are many pledges, I do not want to give a total, because it is difficult to add up these different type of contributions, but everything will be online and everything will be quickly analysed and especially, everything will be quickly monitored. We want to monitor implementation of these pledges, altogether and we want to measure impact as soon as possible." JOURNALIST AND CAMERAMAN LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES FILIPPO GRANDI, SAYING: "I want to repeat what the SG (U.N. Secretary General, Antonio Guterres) also mentioned yesterday, we cannot go to a world in which responsibility-sharing means some states keep all the refugees and some states pay all the money. We cannot do that. That is why we have resettlement, that is why we have different types of partnerships, that is why asylum has to remain in reality in all parts of the world, including in the rich countries and even more in the rich countries that have so many responsibilities." GRANDI LISTENING TO JOURNALIST'S QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES FILIPPO GRANDI, SAYING: "And then of course, many other pledges in education, in jobs and livelihood, in resettlement and complementary pathways. We launched an asylum support group, because we should not forget that asylum as an institution is under threat, the Secretary-General said this to you yesterday and I think that, that is our response to form a group that will help states, try and maintain the standards of asylum that are enshrined in international law." JOURNALISTS LISTENING GRANDI LEAVING STAGE U.N. BUILDING WITH SPHERE
- Embargoed: 1st January 2020 21:39
- Keywords: Filippo Grandi Global refugee forum U.N. refugees
- Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- City: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Country: Switzerland
- Topics: Government/Politics,United Nations
- Reuters ID: LVA002BAI8F2F
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: States have pledged more than $3 billion to support refugees as well as some 50,000 resettlement places, the United Nations refugee agency said on Wednesday (December 18) at the end of a ministerial conference.
Filippo Grandi, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said that the Global Forum on Refugees had broadened responsibility-sharing for the world's 25.9 million refugees who have fled war and persecution and mainly find asylum in poor neighbouring countries.
"States pledged at least $3 billion in additional resources, so in addition to the World Bank and other pledges. And the private sector pledged $250 million by itself", Grandi told a final news conference, adding that the figures were preliminary.
Germany, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, pledged some 1.7 billion euros, he said.
The Inter-American Development Bank pledged $1 billion to communities hosting refugees in Latin America, while the World Bank announced it was expanding funding for projects supporting refugees by 10 pct to $2.2 billion in its latest replenishment, Grandi added.
States pledged 50,000 new resettlement and other legal pathways for refugees to remain in host countries, he said.
The Trump administration said in September that it planned to allow only 18,000 refugees to resettle in the United States in the 2020 fiscal year, the lowest number in the history of the modern refugee programme.
The right to claim asylum, enshrined in international law, remains "under threat", Grandi said, without naming names.
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