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An interview with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi
An extended conversation with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grande.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (who recently contracted the virus himself) tells Ian Bremmer in this week's episode of GZERO World that the coronavirus has upended the lives of millions of refugees in countless ways. Countries that were already limiting their number of refugees closed up their borders entirely. And today, as nationalist sentiments and straight-up xenophobia become ever more prevalent, 80 million people, or one percent of the world's population, find themselves displaced.
Watch the episode: UNHCR chief: How the pandemic has upended the lives of refugees
What makes the UN’s top refugee advocate, Filippo Grandi, the angriest?
"All over the industrialized world, the refugee issue has been manipulated for political reasons…it has become popular to say 'Let's get rid of them. Let's send them away. Let's not rescue them at sea.'" The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has faced an uphill battle in getting the leaders of the world to care about refugees for years. But, he says, the recent increase in the politicization of refugees as disease-carrying hoards truly makes his blood boil. Not only, he says, because it's morally wrong, but also because it's not an efficient way to handle the problem. His conversation with Ian Bremmer was part of a new episode of GZERO World.
Watch the episode: UNHCR chief: How the pandemic has upended the lives of refugees