NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 25 – Italy, which will participate at December’s Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, confirms its support for the UNHCR. The UNHCR has been an important partner to Italy in the assistance of refugees in humanitarian crises and throughout the management of migration flows, particularly in transit countries such as Libya and Nigeria, said Luigi Di Maio, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, during a bilateral meeting with the High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in New York, during the 74th General Assembly.
During the meeting, held at the office of Italy’s permanent mission, Di Maio announced the beginning of a ‘strategic dialogue’ with UNHCR and to organize a further meeting during the first months of 2020. Italy has given UNCHR 26 million euros from the Africa Fund and, between 2017-2018, the Italian Cooperation financed UNHCR initiatives for a value of 40.7 million euros. For 2019, contributes to UNHCR for emergency initiatives is expected to reach 9 million, for which 800,000 euros have already been donated to help in the Venezuelan crisis.
Minister Di Maio has expressed satisfaction for the collaboration with UNHCR over the principal areas of crisis. He reminded the “humanitarian corridors” project which has thus far allowed 2,300 refugees and asylum seekers to travel safely and settle in Italy. “An experience unique to European Countries, which should also be replicated elsewhere and could be amplified within the framework of a collective, European effort, to reach many more in need,” he said. Di Maio expressed the need for the International Community to ensure adequate financing so to guarantee human conditions in the UNHCR migrant camps, and the importance of having the United Nations respond with great effort, especially in terms of a higher presence of humanitarian workers on the coasts. (SB@OnuItalia)
