“We call on the international community to urgently support refugees and their hosts,” asked Filippo Grandi, who heads the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees.
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The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) requested, on Saturday October 7, nearly 100 million dollars to help refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh in Armenia and those who host them. The Armenia Emergency Response Plan for Refugees (RRP) runs until the end of March and brings together 60 partners, including 43 national NGOs, underlines the UNHCR in a press release.
The aim is to provide assistance to around 231,000 people, including 136,000 refugees and 95,000 members of local host communities. These come in addition to 35,000 other refugees, asylum seekers and stateless people who were already in Armenia. After a lightning offensive by Azerbaijani forces in September, almost the entire Armenian population fled the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia.
“Crucial” international support
“We call on the international community to urgently support refugees and their hosts”, insisted Filippo Grandi, who heads the UNHCR and knows from experience that since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 it is difficult to raise sufficient funds. If the local communities and the Armenian authorities have been generous, “However, international support is crucial to maintaining this welcome and allowing us to respond to the immediate needs and take advantage of the resilience of this population”added the High Commissioner.