UN refugee chief urges peace so 117 million can return home

UN refugee chief Barham Salih urged the Security Council to prioritise ending conflicts that drive displacement. He said lasting peace, not endless aid, is the only way refugees can rebuild their lives.Unitednations,Sep 26, 2026 06:48 ISTUN refugee chief Barham Salih on Friday urged the world’s divided nations to focus on ending conflicts and crises so that the more than 117 million people forced from their homes can return, instead of spending generations displaced in foreign countries.In his first speech to the UN Security Council since his election as high commissioner for refugees last December, Salih told the 15-member body it has “a unique responsibility to help make peace possible”. “For the millions of people forced from their homes – and the millions more who should never have to flee – I urge you to use that responsibility,” the former refugee, who was Iraq’s president from 2018 to 2022, said at a meeting on the sidelines of the annual UN gathering of world leaders.Salih said humanitarians, including those working for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, deal every day with the consequences of conflict, but cannot create peace. That responsibility, he said, is entrusted under the UN Charter to the Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security.He pointed to several conflicts that have forced people to flee. In Sudan, he said, the war remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 12 million people displaced inside and outside the country. “As long as this war continues, people will continue to flee,” he said. In Congo, Salih said, “generations have now lived through cycles of conflict and violence”, with the situation now compounded by an escalating Ebola crisis. In Ukraine, he said, the war has displaced millions inside the country and sent millions more to other countries.He also said generations of refugees from disputed Western Sahara, which Morocco claims, have grown up in camps near Tindouf in neighbouring Algeria, “facing uncertainty and limited prospects while awaiting a political solution”. Referring to the latest Middle East escalation, Salih said UNHCR has mobilised resources and staff to help more than 130,000 Yemenis who have fled recent hostilities and remain in the country, as well as more than 3,700 who have sought safety in Djibouti.Salih said a goal he launched earlier this year to reduce by half, by 2035, the number of refugees in long-term displacement who rely on humanitarian aid “is ambitious”. But, he added, “it must be, because keeping people alive year after year while they remain unable to rebuild their lives cannot be our end goal.”He said success cannot mean becoming better at keeping people caught in war alive for another year, or setting up a new camp in response to a 50-year emergency. It also cannot mean children inheriting displacement from their parents.“Success must ultimately mean creating the conditions in which people no longer need us,” Salih said. He added that UNHCR’s ambition must be “to prevent displacement where we can, resolve it where it has occurred, and create the conditions in which people can rebuild their lives in safety and dignity”, summing up his appeal for peace as the only lasting answer to displacement.With PTI Inputs- Ends