By Giwa SHILE
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, on Wednesday commended Ethiopia for its open-door policy towards refugees that are arriving from neighbouring countries.
Grandi, who is currently in the East African country as part of a four-day visit, said this in Addis Ababa in a statement.
Grandi praised the Ethiopian government’s openness to new and innovative approaches to improve the lives of more than 900,000 refugees and host communities.
Ethiopia currently hosts more than 900,000 refugees, primarily from neighbouring South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea, as well as a smaller number of refugees from Yemen and Syria, according to figures from the UNHCR.
“What is developed here is a unique approach to self-reliance of refugees where the government of Ethiopia has been extremely open to new approaches,” the statement quoted Grandi as saying.
“The host communities and refugees have also been remarkably open to work together in harmony. This is something we don’t normally see,” Grandi added.
Grandi also earlier attended the 32nd AU summit in Addis Ababa from Feb. 10 to Feb. 11, in which African leaders declared the year 2019 as the “Year of Refugees, Returnees and IDPs: Towards Durable Solutions to Forced Displacement in Africa.”—Xinhua
