UNHCR chief calls for immediate mobilization of unconditional aid

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi called for greater international cooperation to solve multiple crises at the opening of the 72nd session of the Executive Committee including that of urgent humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

He said, “millions of Afghans have been uprooted for more than 40 years, and recent developments have created new challenges.”

“You have heard me (and many others in the aid community) say that large-scale, unconditional humanitarian assistance must be mobilized now, immediately.

“Failure to urgently implement these solutions – and we’re talking of weeks, not much longer – will aggravate the crisis,” he said.

Grandi stated that despite always being “very prudent in making predictions regarding population movements, I believe that such a deterioration will almost inevitably cause large internal and possibly external displacement.”

Grandi, who visited Kabul last month, told The Associated Press in an interview three weeks ago that the international community and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) need to find a way to deal with each other for the sake of stabilizing Afghanistan.

“The international community will have to balance pragmatism, the need to keep Afghanistan stable and viable, and the political considerations that would mean supporting a government led by the Taliban (IEA),” said Grandi.

He also stated a compromise is urgently needed to avoid an economic meltdown that could cause violence and chaos that would ignite a mass exodus. A collapse of the already fragile Afghan economy would engulf Afghanistan’s neighbors and ripple across the world, he said.