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UN Chief Urges States to Focus on Crisis Solutions, Not Border Controls

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi talks to reporters during a visit to the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria as displaced people arrive from Lebanon on October 7, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi talks to reporters during a visit to the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria as displaced people arrive from Lebanon on October 7, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
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UN Chief Urges States to Focus on Crisis Solutions, Not Border Controls

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi talks to reporters during a visit to the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria as displaced people arrive from Lebanon on October 7, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi talks to reporters during a visit to the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria as displaced people arrive from Lebanon on October 7, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

The head of the UN refugee agency on Monday urged countries to focus on solutions to crises and to drop measures to block refugees and migrants at their borders, saying they are ineffective and sometimes illegal.
Addressing over 100 diplomats and ministers in Geneva at UNHCR's annual meeting, Filippo Grandi said an unprecedented 123 million people are displaced around the world, Reuters reported.
"You might then ask: what can be done? For a start, do not focus only on your borders," he said, urging leaders instead to look at the reasons people are fleeing their homes.

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Greek, Turkish Foreign Ministers to Meet on Nov. 8, Sources Say

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan look on, during the inauguration of the Great Mosque of Tirana or Namazgah Mosque, the largest mosque in the Balkans, in Tirana, Albania October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan look on, during the inauguration of the Great Mosque of Tirana or Namazgah Mosque, the largest mosque in the Balkans, in Tirana, Albania October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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Greek, Turkish Foreign Ministers to Meet on Nov. 8, Sources Say

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan look on, during the inauguration of the Great Mosque of Tirana or Namazgah Mosque, the largest mosque in the Balkans, in Tirana, Albania October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan look on, during the inauguration of the Great Mosque of Tirana or Namazgah Mosque, the largest mosque in the Balkans, in Tirana, Albania October 10, 2024. (Reuters)

Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis will meet his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Athens on Nov. 8 to discuss bilateral issues including the demarcation of an exclusive economic zone, diplomatic sources said on Tuesday.

Greece and Türkiye, NATO allies but historic foes, have been at odds for decades over matters ranging from airspace to maritime jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean, energy resources and ethnically split Cyprus.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week he believed relations with Greece were improving and that the Gerapetritis-Fidan meeting was aimed at finding solutions to issues such as maritime zones and airspace.

The foreign ministers have been tasked with exploring whether conditions were favorable to initiate talks on the demarcation of the continental shelf and economic zone, Gerapetritis said last month.

An agreement on where their maritime zones begin and end is important for determining rights over possible gas reserves and power infrastructure schemes.

A high-level cooperation council, at which the countries will assess progress, is expected to take place in Ankara in January.

Separately, the leaders of estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriots were expected to meet informally with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Tuesday.

Cyprus was split decades ago in a Turkish invasion after a brief Greek-inspired coup, and preceded by years of sporadic violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Reunification talks collapsed in mid-2017 and have been at a stalemate since.