UN migration chief calls for access to help Gazans, who have 'nowhere else to turn'

Tents and hygiene and cooking kits stuck in Jordan warehouses, IOM head tells The National

Amy Pope, director general of the International Organisation for Migration, talks to the media at the UN's European headquarters in Geneva after assuming the post in October 2023. EPA

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The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is seeking access to assist people in Gaza, where the scale of displacement is “enormous” and “people have nowhere else to turn”, the head of the UN agency told The National.

The IOM has 40,000 tents, hygiene kits and cooking kits waiting in warehouses in Jordan that have been unable to enter the Palestinian enclave since a ceasefire broke down in March, its Director General Amy Pope said.

“We have things that that will just give the most basic of life-saving support to people, but we can't get it in,” Ms Pope said in a wide-ranging interview with The National following the Astana International Forum in the capital of Kazakhstan. “So that's what we're asking for ... access to the communities who are in need.”

Ninety per cent of Gaza’s population, around 1.9 million people, have been displaced, according to the IOM. More than half of them children, and many have been displaced several times.

Palestinians sit on rubble at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Thursday. Reuters

A US-backed body, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been tasked with carrying out aid distribution without a halt to the fighting, but the UN has rejected participating in the scheme.

Israel says the foundation is a way of providing aid without it falling into the hands of Hamas, whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government accuses of looting food supplies.

It has been shunned by UN agencies and humanitarian organisations, who say the operation puts civilian lives in danger and could cause further mass displacement.

A former adviser to US Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, Ms Pope said she saw very few buildings that remained standing when she visited Gaza in February during a ceasefire. At that time, residents’ number one concern was lack of safe shelter, she said.

“I met people who had effectively nowhere else to turn,” she said. Since the ceasefire ended, “our ability to get anything in to support shelter has been nonexistent, and so we know that that the suffering has only increased enormously.”

The death toll in Gaza stands at more than 54,000, including more than 4,000 who were killed since Israel resumed military operations on March 18, according to the territory's health ministry. The strip’s entire population is at risk of famine, the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday.

Mr Netanyahu said last week that Israel would control the whole of the Gaza Strip at the end of its continuing military offensive. The renewed assault has prompted condemnation and pledges to review trade ties from some of Israel’s closest allies, including the UK and EU.

Israel's right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said the army “aims to occupy and cleanse areas in Gaza”, raising fears of forced displacement, widely considered a violation of international law.

“We cannot be a part of forced displacement, and obviously we urge all countries to abide by international law, which forbids forced displacement,” Ms Pope said.

Israel's military says it is ordering people to leave locations in Gaza for their own safety, although it has also attacked designated “safe zones”. Its eviction orders, in the form of leaflets, phone calls and text messages, also come with inadequate notice, according to humanitarian organisations.

Gazans’ right to return to their homes is paramount, Ms Pope said. “What’s critical is enable people to get out of harm's way, enable people to go back home. They shouldn't have to choose.”

Global need for safe migration routes

Beyond Gaza, Ms Pope wants people to look beyond the UN to shape responses to migration, as attitudes towards the issue harden in many parts of the world.

“I don't always think the UN is the best advocate for better policy," she said. “We're looking to the private sector, who tell us all the time that they need sustainable workforces.”

Without addressing the key drivers of migration, including climate change, conflict and a paucity of opportunities, tough border controls will not work, said Ms Pope, who was elected to her role in 2023 and is the first woman to lead the IOM.

“We know that as much as a government is investing in controlling borders, unless it invests in addressing why people are moving in the first place, it's always going to have a gap between policy and outcome,” she said.

In Kazakhstan, the government has the opposite attitude of many western nations, where safe and legal paths to migration have shut down.

As well as workers from other central Asian countries like Uzbekistan, the resource-rich middle power is attracting migrants from South Asian countries including India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

“There is a strong interest from the government in promoting safe and regular migration,” Ms Pope said.

The IOM is encouraging all governments to seriously consider provision of safe and legal routes for migrants, who can fill labour shortages and improve diversity.

“It's difficult in the political climate,” Ms Pope said. “But from a strategic and economic development point of view, it makes a lot of sense.”