United Nations Radio

As each day seems to bring more bad news about the health of global financial markets and institutions, Antonio Guterres (photo), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, is appealing to the world in the midst of this crisis, not to forget the most vulnerable of its citizens. Bissera Kostova reports.

Guterres:Today's world is becoming more and more a dangerous world, and refugees are the most vulnerable victims of those dangers.

NARR:The head of UNHCR, Antonio Guterres, expects 2009 to bring more crises, more poverty and environmental destruction, leading to more refugees. According to the UN refugee agency, at the end of 2007, there were 11 and a half million refugees, and the number is climbing.

Guterres:People on the move in growing numbers everywhere - many refugees escaping persecution or conflict, but also others forced to move because of extreme poverty, or climate change impacts. This is indeed a world in which humanitarian needs are growing.

NARR:It would be tragic, Mr. Guterres pointed out if these growing needs are met with diminished financial commitments as industrialized countries devote hundreds of billions of dollars to bailing out failing banks and financial companies. While this is necessary for the health of the world economy, he says, it should not affect the much smaller amounts needed for humanitarian aid.

Guterres:We are speaking of peanuts if we compare humanitarian aid, with for instance, financial rescue packages. And if those peanuts would be reduced, we would then face dramatic consequences - not on our programmes - I'm not worried about UNHCR, I'm worried about the people we care for. And it's not only UNHCR - it's all other aspects of humanitarian aid - from food support, from the situation of children, women in many communities, from all other relevant aspects, in which, unfortunately, because of conflict, because of climate change, because of the economic crisis in itself, more and more people will be in need and it would be impossible to address those needs if humanitarian aid will decrease.

NARR:Antonio Guterres spoke to reporters after the closing of the annual meeting last week of UNHCR's governing body. The Executive Committee approved UNHCR's 2009 annual budget of 1 and a quarter billion dollars, with an additional half a billion for supplementary programmes. One of the biggest of these additional funds is for the situation in Somalia. Each year tens of thousands of Somalis use smuggling networks to bring them across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. Hundreds drown or go missing during the perilous journey. In the latest incident on Friday, nearly 150 people were forced overboard by the smugglers as they reached the coast of Yemen, and only 47 were known to have survived. Mr. Guterres says much more needs to be invested in rescue at sea, as well as on assistance programmes for the arrivals.

Guterres:We have increased our programme in Yemen from the financial point of view four times in the last two years, and we are still doing very little compared with the needs. We have just approved ... a new programme to strengthen our protection capacity both in Yemen, in Djibouti, in Somaliland and Puntland, but again this is out of proportion with the dramatic needs we are facing, ... so I think this must be something the international community needs to see with a much stronger commitment.

NARR:The UN High Commissioner for Refugees emphasizes that humanitarian aid for the most vulnerable people, represents an investment in the creation of a more peaceful and prosperous world. Reporting for UN Radio, I'm Bissera Kostova.

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