Radio Miraya
2765: European Union's Sudan crisis response crucial to the South Sudan humanitarian situation: Diplomat
The World Refugee Day is really the best occasion to mark the courage, the resilience, but also the hardship and the plight that the refugees went through to and still go through the challenges they face every day. It's a huge day to commemorate this, to celebrate the positive things, the courageous, to show empathy, I think, also with the hardship they have, and to reflect on the situation of refugees, and then, if I go further, the situation of forced displacement around the world. Just one figure, the World Refugee Day exists since 2001, 50 years after the adoption of the Convention on Refugees. 2001, we had 16 million refugees. Today, 43.6 million refugees. This is an increase of 280%. This tells you a lot about the state the world is in. I think this is also a number we came about that makes us really reflect on the situation as it is, and the necessity to accelerate all the efforts we can to solve the crisis, to bring peace to the world. Yes, this 43.3 million is globally. We're talking about the global figure. The global figure is the global figure, yes. Okay. Now, what has been the impact of EU support on the ground in South Sudan, particularly in terms of improving the lives of refugees and IDPs? Yes, there the European Union is working in the so-called nexus mode, trying to bring sustainable solutions by addressing displacement issues, peace, development, and humanitarian, and so to speak, integrating all the instruments that we have to finally, with the attention to improve the life of the refugees, and to make more resilient the host communities. And to integrate, that is a big part of the work, to try to integrate the refugees, and not only refugees, also displaced persons into the host communities. Today, we have seen that ourselves. We were, we made a field trip to Yamyang, to the Atruang Tok camp. There is the possibility for the children to go to school together with the people who live in the villages, to work, to find work, to be integrated. There is no separation, and I think that's probably the right way to go forward, to make these people, because if the refugees, if these displaced persons have opportunities, have the same rights, they can do great things. And they are a part of the solution, and not a part of the problem. Yes, and just get a little bit of light in this integration process, just like now IDPs and refugee children to join the schools. Don't you think there's challenges of space and so forth at this school level? Yeah, there are, of course, there are challenges we heard today as well, that there are classes oversized, 50, 60 people in classes, but this is, I mean, this is not so a specific issue. It's an issue that you find everywhere, not only in the displaced context, the need for more schools, and not only schools, but teachers, and not only teachers, but qualified teachers. And that is also an issue. I remember that the Abraham, one of the UNHCR staff told me the numbers of teachers used to be 550 in the camp and not only the camp in the village. Now it's 350, it has gone down, funding challenges. Some teachers had to drop out, had to drop out for different reasons, or did not want to continue anymore. Demand is growing, children are growing, and the number of teachers going down, so that is a big issue and a big challenge. It can also be found in other contexts, and of course, the education, education question, so to speak, is a huge issue in South Sudan. That has to be addressed in an integrated way. Yes, you mentioned some of the challenges, but now I want to just ask specifically, what are some of the key challenges that you first in providing support to refugees in South Sudan, and how can you address them? Well, we are not an implementer ourselves. We work with a lot of parties. Of course, I think the main partner is the UNHCR today, but we also work with other UN agencies like IOM or World Food Programme. They all have different roles and different parts to play. We also work with NGOs, the Danish, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the ICRC, with national NGOs to implement the, what I said, this humanitarian development piece, "Nexus", is to provide essential life-saving support to foster self-reliance of displaced individuals, and to strengthen the resilience of host communities. And then also, and I think this, there we do it ourselves, the advocacy for promoting and respecting international humanitarian law and international refugee law. Yes, well, you just mentioned now that there are over 43 million refugees globally, and one may see like, if you look at the situation of South Sudan, is funding not an issue that you are facing in terms of supporting the refugees in South Sudan. If funding is always an issue, I mean, it can never be enough, I have to say, funding, but in our case, we have provided the humanitarian assistance that we have provided globally in 2023, was a 90 million euro. It went up since independence, it has grown, it has grown all the time. That is the humanitarian assistance, the huge part is, of course, for displaced persons. Our refugees are part of it, but this is what I wanted to add in the beginning, we talked about 43.4 million refugees, these are the registered refugees, this is the number also that the UNHCR uses, but the displaced persons, the number the UNHCR uses is 120 million. Also there are much more displaced persons than refugees. Just take the example of South Sudan, we have 2 million South Sudanese displaced internally, and 2.3 million South Sudanese in the neighboring countries. Yes, was there some event for the day-to-day that EU participated in, and what could be the activities to mark the war refugee day-to-day? The field trip was, I think for me, the most emotional part and the most tangible part, it was really a huge honour to have the number one in the world. It's like the Pope for refugees, the High Commissioner of the UNHCR, himself, he went, from all the places in the world, he went to South Sudan, we were part of his mission, he went to South Sudan to Yom Yung to mark the world refugee day-to-day. I think this is very, very important, very significant. Also, the importance the United Nations gives to South Sudan and to South Sudan is challenges. I think it's a very symbolic visit, and this marked us, again, as I said, it was an emotional visit, it was a very warm and well-orchestraed ceremony. We really got a lot out of it, and I do hope as well that for the people in the camp, it was a very good and huge event to showcase their challenges, their situation also, but it's not only a challenge situation, it also gives us hope. We saw the agricultural committee, we talked to the agricultural committee, we saw what they are doing, they were able to produce at least half of the food they need for themselves. There are schools, yes, they're true, the schools should be more, they should be more teachers, but at least there are schools on the other side of the border, it's not the same situation, it is overall, I think there is, there are not only challenges, there are also chances to grow, you have market, you have the people that are integrated in the community, that was the overall picture that we had. Excuse me just to add, this is the mission, then we also have tonight a reception, it's a possibility also for the wider diplomatic community to be associated with the World Refugee Day that we can make an outreach and advocacy, Mark again, the importance of the day, and there will be a picture show, a photo exhibition, well a photo exhibition about this place present about refugees, and then this interview that we are doing now, Mr Nelson, this is part of a radio show, I think my colleagues, they have been, there will be here to talk also about the World Refugee Day, about what the European Union is doing, and they probably could be better than me, inform you about the nuts and bolts, the in and outs of the programs and the projects that we are doing in all over South Sudan, in particular in the North. Yes, allow me not to ask you about the relationship between the local community, sometimes we call them host community and the refugees, how are they interacting and supporting the refugees to settle? It's a very, very good question, very relevant question, because I think this is really key, now it depends very much on the context, what we saw today was quite encouraging and positive, but it is, again, it was a couple of hours, it's a field trip, so it's, I can't really, we have to see the situation also when it's raining, when it's really raining, when now it today was very nice and sunny day, everything worked well, everything was well organized, it could also be different, I can't judge, I don't want to judge to make too much conclusions from this field visit, but we saw it was quite encouraging, it could be different in other parts, I think, I know this from Europe or from the discussion in my own country, the point is that the relations, it should not be that you have a town of 10,000 people and 100,000 refugees, a camp of 100,000 refugees, that would not work, that would be a resentment from the population, and in particular, if unfortunately, because for political reasons, if the integration is limited, and then this is very difficult, this integration, so that has to be very well elaborated and thought of, but the numbers are important in this case, today, obviously again, seem to work well, even though there are considerably more refugees than population. - Well, finally from me, let me ask you about what are the EU's future plans for continued support and collaboration with UNHCR and other stakeholders in South Sudan, specifically in relations to ongoing efforts to assist refugees? - That is certainly the support, the commitment that we have, will continue the cooperation that we have with the organizations, in particular also the UNHCR, will continue, I do hope it will increase. You have our foreign minister, a high representative of the European Union, Dr. Jose Borrell, he also stated very clearly today the commitment of the European Union to respect the international convention refugees in Geneva 1951, the principle of granting, of getting, seeking asylum, and of non-refalment, so there is a very strong commitment from our side, that day to day that we mark is part of the Plato year that we do also the outreach for a better respect and promotion of international refugee law, humanitarian rights, so our commitment, our engagement cannot be doubted, will continue. - Thank you very much, those who had some of the questions I prepared for you, except if there's something very pertinent that you want to add, please feel free. - I just wanted to add that for the numbers, the European Union pledged 7.6 billion euro at the 2023 global refugee forum, this is multi, it's a support for many, many areas, the protection, the education, the climate change, in the healthcare, livelihood support, food shelter, education, and so that pledge is there, but again to come back to your question, the commitment of the European Union is very strong in this area, the pledge is there, it will materialize for the global, to address the global refugee issue, and specifically I also would like to add that the European Union has pledged 900 million euro in April 24 to address the situation in Sudan, so there is the European Union's leading donor on the Sudan response and the Sudan response is of course crucial essential for the humanitarian situation in South Sudan, nearly all the refugees that we have seen today are from Sudan, actually they are there for quite a long time, they are not, they're also coming because of the war that is raging now, but they came from 2011, 2012, from South Quadrofan, and since 2013 they have settled there in this camp in Chuan Toc, but the the pledge is there, the support will continue, and we hope hopefully we can address the situation in Sudan, and that should have a positive, hopefully let's hope a positive effect on the situation in South Sudan. Thank you so much, I really appreciate your time with Radio Miraya, thank you so much. Thank you very much Nelson, thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]