Man sets himself on fire outside UNHCR in Geneva

A Syrian Kurd set himself on fire yesterday outside the headquarters of the United Nations refugee agency in Geneva.

The German resident, 31, did not provide any explanation for his actions, Geneva police spokesman Silvain Guillaume-Gentil said.

“We can imagine his reasons, but we do not have anything concrete,” Mr Guillaume-Gentil said. “He had a hard time expressing himself when help arrived.”

Kurds have organised a series of protests against the assault that Turkey launched on October 9 against Kurdish fighters in north-east Syria.

The incident occurred shortly before 8am local time outside UNHCR, which is across the street from the Palais des Nations, the UN’s European headquarters.

Emergency teams arrived quickly and the injured man was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Lausanne, where he was being treated for his injuries, police said.

“We are saddened and shocked [about] an incident of self-immolation that happened in front of our Geneva headquarters this morning,” said Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for UNHCR.

The man set himself ablaze and then tried to enter the UNHCR building, but security officers and medical services intervened and the fire was put out, Mr Mahecic said. “We hope he will recover.”

The UNHCR building is across the street from a collective shelter for asylum-seekers, including Syrian Kurds.

“I saw the flames and the security agents from the building came and then a few minutes after that the police and ambulance. There are Syrians here [the asylum centre], but I can’t confirm the man was a resident,” a centre employee said.

A witness at the asylum centre said that the man resembled a “huge human flame ... I doubt he could survive that”.