The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has assured Thursday that it has received congratulations from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, for its cooperation in welcoming Ukrainian citizens who have been forced to leave their country because of the war.
Grandi held a meeting with the Belarusian permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Larysa Belskaya, to whom he «highly appreciated the support provided by Belarus to Ukrainian refugees».
During their conversation, Grandi and Belskaya also discussed the steps to be taken to strengthen coordination in the face of «the largest refugee crisis in Europe» and a «significant increase in refugee status,» the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
«Grandi confirmed UNHCR’s readiness to expand cooperation with Belarus on a wide range of topical issues and to support the efforts of the Belarusian authorities to ensure the proper reception and integration of refugees,» the said statement reads.
On the other hand, Grandi has addressed some of the demands made by Belskaya, such as the need to strengthen the capacities of the ministries dedicated to the competences of migration and reception of refugees, as well as the importance of improving the system of registration and granting of asylum.
Finally, both representatives agreed on the importance of protecting the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, including in the border area of Belarus with the countries of the European Union.
On this point, Grandi and Belskaya stressed the «counterproductive and discriminatory» nature of building walls, which do nothing more than deny access to the territory to refugees and asylum seekers; at the same time they insisted on the «inadmissibility of ill-treatment and violent expulsion of such persons».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
