14/04/2025 Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Oleksii Goncharenko (Ukraine, ECPA), the Chair of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), made the following statement today:
“On 20 March 2025 the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi warned against the impact of global aid cuts on refugees. 71% of the 122.6 million people in need of international protection are hosted in low- and middle-income countries where UNHCR is providing, crucially, direct services to these people in support of the host countries.
At their 4th summit, Council of Europe heads of state and government called for strengthened political dialogue with other international organisations, including the UN. In January 2025 the Assembly reiterated, in its Resolution 2581(2025), the need for ‘greater involvement of national parliamentarians in the work of the United Nations and the implementation of its mission’.
Co-operation between the Council of Europe and the UN started in 1951, a year which also saw the adoption of the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees. The war of aggression against Ukraine acted as a terrible reminder of the importance of the UNHCR in the shaping of an institutional and an operational response at the service of national authorities and of forcibly displaced persons.
Member states must sustain their financial support to the UN. Let us be up to the values we decided for ourselves. Let us keep supporting the work of the UNHCR.”