In an interview on Friday, the head of the U.N. migration agency cautioned that fatigue over the war in Ukraine and U.S.-led foreign aid cuts are jeopardizing efforts to support people fleeing hardship.
The United Nations’s Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Amy Pope, made these comments a day after a Ukraine recovery conference in Rome mobilized over 10 billion euros ($11.69 billion) for the country.
She said, “It’s three-and-a-half years into the conflict. I think it’s fair to say that everybody is tired, and we hear that even from Ukrainians who’ve been experiencing the ongoing attacks in their cities and often have been displaced multiple times.”
“The response to it, though, has to be peace, because ultimately, without peace, there won’t be an end, not only to the funding request but also to the support for the Ukrainian people.”
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According to U.N. figures, Russia’s invasion has caused Europe’s largest refugee crisis of the century, with 3.8 million Ukrainians uprooted in their own nation and 5.6 million refugees worldwide.
As European contributors like Britain shift cash from development to defense and U.S. President Donald Trump cuts foreign aid, the IOM and other U.N. agencies face severe financing difficulties.
According to Pope, U.S. decisions will give the IOM a $1 billion shortfall this year, adding that budget reductions should be phased gradually or else Trump and others risk stoking even worse migration crises.
She said, “It doesn’t work to have provided assistance and then just walk away and leave nothing. And what we see happening when support falls is that people move again … So (the cuts) can ultimately have a backlash.”
