UN refugee chief tells countries to drop ineffective border controls

The head of the UN refugee agency on Monday urged countries to drop measures to block refugees and migrants at their borders, saying they are ineffective and sometimes unlawful.

Addressing more than 100 diplomats and ministers in Geneva at UNHCR's annual meeting, Filippo Grandi said an unprecedented 123 million people are displaced around the world.

"You might then ask: what can be done? For a start, do not focus only on your borders," he said, urging leaders instead to look at the reasons people are fleeing their homes.

"We must seek to address the root causes of displacement, and work toward solutions," he said. "I beg you all that we continue to work — together and with humility — to seize every opportunity to find solutions for refugees"

Asylum schemes

Without naming countries, he said initiatives to outsource, externalize or even suspend asylum schemes were in breach of international law, and he offered countries help in finding fair, fast and lawful asylum schemes.

In the same speech he called for a drastic increase in support for refugees fleeing Sudan's civil war, saying that the lack of resources was already driving them across the Mediterranean Sea and even across the Channel to Britain.

"In this lethal equation, something has got to give. Otherwise, nobody should be surprised if displacement keeps growing, in numbers but also in geographic spread," he said.

The UNHCR says it works to ensure that every human being who has fled violence, persecution, war or disaster at home has the

right to seek asylum and find safe refuge. Its work is under intense pressure, with the number of displaced people increasing every year for the past 12 years, according to the agency.