The World Refugee Forum is currently taking place in Geneva. In addition to High Commissioner for Refugees Grandi, the participants also include UN Secretary General Guterres. This is not just about urgently needed funds, but above all about solutions.
Around 4,200 representatives of governments, aid organizations and companies gathered at the Palexpo congress center in Geneva, including 300 refugees. By Friday they want to find solutions for the 114 million people who are currently fleeing wars and violence around the world – more than ever since the end of the Second World War.
The war in the Middle East is currently dominating the headlines, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, at the start of the World Refugee Forum, but – this was his appeal: “Let us not forget the refugees, even if, among the multitude of challenges, some are greater and more urgent may appear.”
Svenja Schulze represents Germany
Development Minister Svenja Schulze came to Geneva to represent Germany at the meeting. For her, the World Refugee Forum is primarily about supporting the countries that take in the most refugees – and they are not in Europe: “Three quarters of the world’s refugees are in developing and emerging countries. And they are often overwhelmed by this to really form perspectives for refugees.”
Schulze explains that the refugees can go to school, that they can access the health system, that they can work – that is what this World Refugee Forum is about. For example, Germany supports projects in Jordan and Turkey that have enabled 500,000 children from Syria to attend school. In Mauritania they are helping to integrate refugees from Mali.
Refugee admission should be improved worldwide
“We as Germany have a real interest in that. Because if people can stay close to their homeland, then they can find a home there and don’t have to flee any further. And that’s something we definitely want to support,” said Schulze.
After 2019, it is the second World Refugee Forum. It goes back to the “global compact for refugees” that the United Nations General Assembly passed in 2018. A promise by states to improve the reception of refugees worldwide and to distribute the costs better. But the UN refugee agency is short of money.
Dramatic Underfunding
“We still need $400 million for this year alone,” explains UN High Commissioner Grandi. “I don’t think we’ll get them until December 31st. I’m very worried. We’ve already had to limit our projects and reduce staff.”
And yet the dramatic underfunding is not the main topic at the World Refugee Forum, says Peter Ruhenstroth-Bauer, head of the UN refugee agency in Germany. “The central thing about these three days is that civil society, companies and governments are looking for solutions together. So it’s not just about getting donations, but about finding a common solution to the current challenges.”
Former refugee as a member of the German delegation
Haram Dar is also part of the German delegation to the World Refugee Forum. He is 19 years old and knows his stuff. “I come from Pakistan. I migrated to Germany as a small child and of course I know the challenges that people with a migration background or refugee experience have.”
Haram Dar says that he himself was naturalized at some point “through integration successes”. At the global forum in Geneva, he therefore primarily supports Germany’s commitment to educational projects in host countries and emphasizes in his speech to delegates from all over the world how important education is.
Haram Dar, 19, came to Germany from Pakistan as a small child and is a member of the German delegation to the World Refugee Forum in Geneva.
“Education is much more than math and German. Education is the key to integration, and we have to make education possible for everyone: for people on the run, for people who are in Germany,” he says. “We have to integrate them into the national education systems. And I would like to try to advance this perspective here.”