Global crises overwhelming aid system, says migration chief

Istanbul summit to tackle growing demands on aid agencies struggling to cope with competing emergencies
The world’s top official managing migration flows has warned that the global aid system is crumbling under an overwhelming number of crises, from wars across the Middle East and Asia to natural disasters and earthquakes.

William Swing, veteran head of the International Organisation for Migration, has spent more than five decades working across some of the world’s worst troublespots but believes the scale of current challenges dwarfs anything he has grappled with before. “The system as it stands now is pretty much overpowered, overwhelmed by the demand for assistance,” Swing told theObserver. “I don’t want to sound pessimistic, because I am really not, I’m sure there is a way out, but I just don’t see it yet.

Speaking on the eve of the first world humanitarian summit (WHS) in Istanbul, which has been billed as a chance to end “the greatest humanitarian crisis of our lifetime”, Swing described a pressing need for help across an “arc of instability” from west Africa to Asia. The gathering in Turkey will bring together more than 5,000 people from governments, charities, businesses and international organisations such as the UN to try to create a more effective system to help those in the most desperate need.

At present, victims of conflicts from Yemen and Syria to Afghanistan are in a grim race for limited funds to cover even basic needs such as food and shelter, Swing said. Adding to the pressure are natural disasters such as the earthquake in Nepallast year, and epidemics from Ebola to more recently Zika and yellow fever. “We have to do something about humanitarian financing, because the money is simply not there, because you simply find each crisis is competing with the other,” he said. - Read More at the Guardian

Global crises overwhelming aid system, says migration chief