Photo credit: ECOWAS
The Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have started the process of proffering finding solutions to issues of protection of refugees, stateless, displaced persons and asylum seekers in the sub-region.
This Day reports that this cheering news was disclosed during the opening of 2024 ECOWAS Ambassadors – UNHCR retreat with the theme “Improving the protection space for refugees, IDPs, and stateless persons in West Africa and unlocking solutions to forcible displacements,” held in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Participants at the retreat included Member States permanent representatives to ECOWAS, ECOWAS Commission, Representatives of the ECOWAS Parliament, Representatives of the ECOWAS Court, relevant UN agencies and UNHCR.
ECOWAS Commissioner of Human Development and Social Affairs, Prof. Fatou Sarr in her remarks explained that the 2024 retreat is focused on advocacy to secure the protection space for refugees and stateless persons towards solutions to forced displacements in the ECOWAS sub-region.
She said, “The issue of force displacement remains topical for the ECOWAS region. West Africa is the stage for some of the world’s most complex, targeted, and protracted humanitarian crisis.”
On his part, the UN High Commissioner for Refugee, Mr. Xavier Creech, noted that the ECOWAS sub-region is facing a very complex humanitarian situation, with always more refugees and IDPs internally displaced population of seven million people.
