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GENEVA: The head of the UN refugee agency suggested Monday that President Donald Trump’s America has carried out deportation practices that violate international law, and criticized a wider “backlash” in some countries against migrants and refugees.
Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, used a speech to lament that drastic funding cuts and shortages have forced his agency, UNHCR, to slash nearly 5,000 jobs this year, or nearly a quarter of its workforce. The cuts may not be finished, he said.
“This was certainly not an easy year for any of us,” Grandi told the opening of UNHCR’s executive committee. “But remember, please: There has never been an easy year to be a refugee — and there never will be.”
He did cite some bright spots and praised the Trump administration-led peace efforts in Congo, where conflict has displaced millions of people.
At the UN General Assembly last month, the Trump administration — which has slashed support this year for international humanitarian aid — pitched other countries on its view that the global system of seeking asylum has been abused and needs to be revamped, in part by cracking down on migration.
Other traditional donors have cut back their aid outlays for UNHCR this year.
In recent years, the agency has received roughly $5 billion a year — or half its budgetary requirements — even as conflict and repression in places like Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, Venezuela and Ukraine have led the number of people fleeing their homes to roughly double over the last decade — to 122 million.
In the politically charged environment of today, Grandi said, “putting the (UN) Refugee Convention and the principle of asylum on the table would be a catastrophic error.” He insisted that “national sovereignty and the right to seek asylum ”are not incompatible. They are complementary.”
Grandi, whose term is up at the end of this year, decried an erosion of respect for international law in certain developed countries and noted that most refugees are taken in by poorer ones.
“I am worried that the current debate – in Europe, for example – and some current deportation practices – such as in the United States – address real challenges in manners not consistent with international law,” he said.
Tommy Pigott, a US State Department spokesman, defended US immigration and migration policies and said Trump’s speech at the United Nations was “a call to action against the destructive policies promoting mass and illegal migration that globalist bureaucrats have pushed for years.”
“Our actions are consistent with US law and the will of the American people, who demand secure borders and a lawful immigration system,” Pigott said.
Grandi also cited some optimistic developments: More than 1 million refugees from Syria have now returned home. A “glimmer of hope” has emerged in the eastern Congo conflict between Rwanda-backed forces and Congo’s armed forces.
“Thanks to peace efforts spearheaded by the United States, instead of speaking only of more bloodshed, or more refugees, we can start to think – cautiously, but a little bit more optimistically — of stability and returns,” he said.

AMSTERDAM: A crew member of the Dutch cargo ship that was attacked by Houthis in the Gulf of Aden last week has died of his injuries, the vessel's Amsterdam-based operator Spliethoff said in a statement Monday evening.
The company did not release further details about the deceased crew member, but a spokesperson told a Dutch broadcaster they were Filipino. The vessel, Minervagracht, was in international waters in the Gulf of Aden when it was struck by an explosive device that inflicted substantial damage and started a fire on the ship. A helicopter was used to rescue 19 of its crew, who are Russian, Ukrainian, Filipino and Sri Lankan.
Yemen's Houthis clamed responsibility for the attack. The Iran-aligned group has launched numerous assaults on vessels in the Red Sea since 2023, targeting ships they deem linked with Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians over Israel's war on Gaza.
Spliethoff added that one other crew member remained under medical care in Djibouti.
"His condition is stable, and we expect he will be able to return home later this week."