Refugee crisis was not unexpected, says diplomat
Director-general of the United Nations’ Geneva office Michael Moller says Europe’s leaders were warned about influx at least two years ago
Director-General of the United Nations office in Geneva, Denmark’s Michael Moller, expresses optimism that the agency’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) will help toward ending extreme poverty but he has no illusions about the refugee crisis, stressing that such phenomena will continue. On a recent visit to Athens to celebrated the UN’s 70th anniversary, he recommended that we remember the 1980s.
Over 60 million people depend on the UNHCR getting the right funding. But it doesn’t. The needs have grown exponentially over the past several years. There’s donor fatigue, the humanitarian system is now dealing with four or five top-level crises, what we call Level 3, which is testing the system to its limits. The lack of funding has to do with the decreasing quality of our leadership, the fact that we see more and more inwardness, and it has to do with the fact that our approach hasn’t evolved in synch with reality.
A very, very deep rethink about the relationship between development aid and humanitarian aid is needed. A lot of the stuff happening now in humanitarian aid really ought to be in development aid, in the prevention side of development aid, long-term stuff. The average time a refugee is in a camp is ridiculous, it’s between 14 and 17 years. The collective thinking about migration, refugees, doesn’t have a locus, there’s no one place where somebody is sitting thinking about new policies. The UNHCR is a technical organization, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) also. Except for Sir Peter Sutherland, the secretary-general’s special representative for migration and development, but he’s a one-man show, he’s not even supported financially, he hasn’t got a secretary, he pays for his own tickets. It’s at that level of ridiculousness. The crisis we have today, we knew it was going to happen. The leaders of Europe were told it was going to happen at least two years ago. So a little prevention and a little preparation in terms of the narrative to their voters would have gone a long way.
This very negative, xenophobic and frankly racist narrative that we’re seeing in many countries, including my own country – I don’t recognize my own country – is unacceptable, because the facts are different. The facts are that the whole of Europe – minus maybe one or two countries – needs migrants in order to keep the economy going. You can make a very clear economic and statistical case that there’s a direct correlation between the number of mi- grants a country takes in and economic growth.
Also, one of the things that I find very puzzling is that there’s some sort of global amnesia going on. In the early 80s we had pretty much the same problem in Southeast Asia, with much bigger numbers of boat people. It took a while and then someone decided we must deal with it in a more rational way and they came up with a plan of action which was the product of an international conference where international solidarity kicked in in a much broader way than now. Then we put in place a whole series of measures in a way that minimized the pain and over seven years we resettled 2.5 million people. I don’t see why we can’t take a page or two or three out of that book. To me what’s happening isn’t a European problem, it’s an international problem.
No, no, you’re wrong. They are evolving as well. First of all, the number was 10,000 but now they’ve upped it to 100,000. I’ve talked to some of the politicians. The big change also is that in today’s world you have a lot more countries that have not only the capacity but also the need to bring in migrants than you had back in 1985.
More importantly, looking at this crisis as an isolated incident doesn’t make of the United Nations office in Geneva, Denmark’s Michael Moller (left), sits with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos (right) at an event marking the 70th anniversary of the UN, at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, on October 22. Asked whether he believes whether dealing with the refugee crisis is compatible with austerity, Moller says it is ‘just one of these perfect storm situations. The decisions to impose austerity were taken before the refugee crisis.’ any sense whatsoever. We are going to have more of these things and a lot worse. The moment climate refugee problems kick in we are going to be in real trouble, unless we sit down globally and figure out structures and ways to deal with this in the future. Not to reinvent the wheel every damn time that happens, but to rethink completely the humanitarian system, because I guarantee you that it will happen again.
The pipeline of information is incredibly quick, so the reaction time is very brief. Once it’s clear that there’s a block- age for the time being, they’ll find other ways. They’re finding them now already. There’s incredible stories of people going from Russia to Norway by bike. So I don’t think Greece is going to be totally flooded. Turkey is going to accept keeping many of those who are coming. Maybe it’s wishful thinking.
No. That’s just one of these perfect storm situations. The decisions to impose austerity were taken before the refugee crisis.
I would think so.
It’s not, unfortunately. It’s a scandal. The Conference on Disarmament is supposed to be the primary body of the UN system where nuclear disarmament is being negotiated. The Conference on Disarmament hasn’t done a damn thing in 20 years; they can’t even agree on a program of work, an agenda.
Yes, I’m using a lot of time being in their face. I’m telling them publicly that they are a blot on humanity and you name it. Formally there’s no answer. Privately, you get ambassadors coming saying: “Really nice speech you made. We agree with you.” We have to keep pushing. Particularly because there’s new technology, a lot of people are busy developing new stuff that is truly really scary. Unless we sit down and agree some preventive treaties that would regulate the use of killer robots, autonomous weapons – I don’t particularly want to live in a world where a machine determines if I live or die, and this is where we’re going. There’s also cyber and space-based weaponry. That has to be regulated somehow. And all the nuclear stuff that’s been hanging there. All these nutcases, the holders of nuclear warheads, are refurbishing their nuclear stockpiles. We’ve been very lucky that nothing has happened until now; it’s just a matter of time.