Comments by UNHCR's Grandi at EU Foreign Affairs Council on Development

Thank you, Josep. Thanks to the High Representative for this invitation.

And as he said, it’s a great opportunity for me to meet Development Ministers of the Union, thank them for all their support to UNHCR, to refugees worldwide, and discuss this colossal crisis that definitely will raise the figure up, well above 84 million.

We're still making counts, but [for] Ukraine alone, you have 6 million refugees. You have more than 8 million displaced people inside the country. So, it's inevitable that unfortunately, the global displacement crisis is going to, is increasing.

I think an important message, and you mentioned it, Josep, is that there is not just Ukraine, that we should not forget all the rest. First of all, because Ukraine has an impact on many other fragile situations, making them more fragile – food security, energy crisis, price increases, instability.

And then this in turn can cause more displacement. If you have countries getting into unrest and into political fragility, we may see more displacement. So, it is very important as we respond to Ukraine, and we will continue to, to also pay adequate attention to crises in Africa, crises in the Middle East, crises in Latin America, crises in Asia and so forth.

I’m on my way, right after this meeting, I will go to the airport and leave to Bangladesh. I'll be spending the next few days dealing with this very terrible Rohingya crisis. It’s just an example. I'm happy to do it, also to signal that we’re not dealing only with the crisis in Europe, enormous as it might be.