UNHCR turns 70: Keep serving people who are forced to flee

In this file photo taken on September 9, 2020, a boy carries a child in his arms as migrants flee the Moria camp after a fire broke out, on the island of Lesbos, Greece. — AFP

THE Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) turned 70 years old on Dec 14. For an organisation that should have ceased to exist after three years, it is an uncomfortable birthday that we are not in the mood to celebrate.

As a shattered world started to rebuild after World War II, the UNHCR had the task of finding homes for Europe’s refugees. Brought into being on Dec 14,1950, its mandate was time-limited and explicitly non-political, as if its existence was a reminder of miseries that were best swept away along with the rubble.