UNHCR Slams ‘Externalization’ of Migration Issue

Migrants claiming to be from Darfur, Sudan cross the English Channel in an inflatable boat near Dover, Britain, August 4, 2021. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
Migrants claiming to be from Darfur, Sudan cross the English Channel in an inflatable boat near Dover, Britain, August 4, 2021. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
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UNHCR Slams ‘Externalization’ of Migration Issue

Migrants claiming to be from Darfur, Sudan cross the English Channel in an inflatable boat near Dover, Britain, August 4, 2021. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
Migrants claiming to be from Darfur, Sudan cross the English Channel in an inflatable boat near Dover, Britain, August 4, 2021. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi slammed countries on Friday for what he termed the externalization and politicization of the migration issue, which he said betrayed refugees.

"Don't externalize asylum. We've seen it in many instances in North America, Europe and Australia: a trend to say asylum seekers should not come to our territory. If they want to seek asylum, they can do it from afar," Grandi told a Geneva press conference.

This, he insisted, amounted to "almost an export of asylum obligations", endangering protection.

"It is a betrayal of commitments that states have made at the compact, at the global refugee forum two years ago to say 'let's share this responsibility'.

"What sharing is it if you just outsource your asylum responsibility?" Grandi asked.

"The politicization of the refugee issue, this is nothing new. We've seen it in many instances. We've seen it in Europe and many other places.

"Don't politicize refugees, migrants, asylum seekers," AFP quoted Grandi as saying, adding that politicizing the issue "may help leaders get votes, win elections, but they don't solve the problem.

"Actually they make it much more complicated."

He also called out Hungary, noting the country's Foreign Minister Peter Szijarto has vowed to protect its own borders and called on the EU to try to "stop the flow" of illegal migration.

"From an EU member state, this is not a great example," said Grandi.

"I don't think that this is what European values of solidarity are about," the UNHCR head said.

"That is an example of what I think was clearly a politicization of this issue."



French Intelligence Chief: No Certainty on Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stocks

An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
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French Intelligence Chief: No Certainty on Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stocks

An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)

France's intelligence chief said on Tuesday that all aspects of Iran's nuclear program have been pushed back several months after American and Israeli air strikes, but there is uncertainty over where its highly-enriched uranium stocks are.

"The Iranian nuclear program is the material, it is highly-enriched uranium, it is a capacity to convert this uranium from the gaseous phase to the solid phase. It is the manufacturing of the core and it is the delivery," Nicolas Lerner, who heads the DGSE intelligence service, told LCI television.

"Our assessment today is that each of these stages has been very seriously affected, very seriously damaged and that the nuclear program, as we knew it, has been extremely delayed, probably many months."

Lerner, who was speaking for the first time on national television, said a small part of Iran's highly-enriched uranium stockpile had been destroyed, but the rest remained in the hands of the authorities.

"Today we have indications (on where it is), but we cannot say with certainty as long as the IAEA does not restart its work. It's very important. We won't have the capacity to trace it (the stocks)," Lerner said.

Other intelligence assessments have also suggested that Iran retains a hidden stockpile of enriched uranium and the technical capacity to rebuild.

Lerner echoed those comments saying there was a possibility Iran could press ahead with a clandestine program with smaller enrichment capacities.

"That's why France is so attached to finding a diplomatic solution to this nuclear crisis," he said.