Christine Schraner Burgener: Refugee camps unfit for refugees

Christine Schraner Burgener, Switzerland’s state minister for migration, has visited refugee camps around the world and has come to the conclusion that many are unfit for refugees. Some have become permanent settlements, creating conditions for smuggling, human trafficking, forced prostitution, drug dealing, and murder. “I know camps are really not ideal,” Schraner Burgener, who is campaigning to become the next U.N. high commissioner for refugees, told Devex. “And honestly, if I get the position, my vision would be to close the camps.” Backed by Switzerland, Schraner Burgener is one of 13 candidates from around the world who have formally entered the race to succeed the UN Refugee Agency’s Italian high commissioner, Filippo Grandi, when he steps down at the end of the year. If selected by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Schraner Burgener would be the fourth Swiss national to lead the organization — and only the second woman. “The last and only woman who was a high commissioner was from Japan, Sadako Ogata, and this is already 25 years ago,” she said. “So I think it would be time for a second woman.” She believes that her decades-long diplomatic career, which includes a stint as the U.N. special envoy to Myanmar, and her experience managing migration policy for the Swiss government, have prepared her for leading an organization that has become something of a political hot potato in Washington and European capitals, where anti-refugee sentiment is rising. She says she would combine a “rights-based approach” to managing a global population of about 40 million refugees, making their protection her number one priority. But she also said she has “a good sense of realpolitik.” “I’m principled, but also pragmatic,” she said, suggesting that finding permanent homes for refugees requires persuading countries to cooperate. She cited a deal she brokered between Switzerland and Morocco that secured Rabat’s agreement to receive Moroccans turned down for political asylum in Switzerland. In exchange, Switzerland underwrites the cost of a U.N. program to resettle refugees from sub-Saharan Africa to their countries. “I said, ‘OK, you take the Moroccans back who don’t receive asylum in Switzerland, but I will help you to bring your illegal migrants back to sub-Sahara’ through a program of IOM, and I paid.” “So, those such programs are quite effective, but have to be in respect of human rights, and also, like the nonrefoulement principle, is very important,” she added, referring to an international ban on forcibly repatriating nationals if they face the prospect of torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment upon their return. The politics behind the selection of a high commissioner for refugees are somewhat opaque. The U.N. secretary-general weighs not only the merits of a candidate but prospects that their government will support the agency’s mission, politically and financially. It also reflects a bias toward Europe, which has produced 8 of the 11 high commissioners. Three have come from Switzerland, where the 1951 Convention on Refugees was signed, “We are neutral, and maybe neutrality is a point which is an advantage for a high commissioner,” Schraner Bergener said. “Also, Switzerland is one of the biggest donors.” Schraner Bergener said the refugee agency’s financial crisis — U.S. and European foreign aid cuts have forced it to lay off more than 5,000 workers in 2025 — has underscored the need to explore other sources of financing. “I know that financing is now very difficult, because especially in European countries, they save much more money for defense,” she said. “And that’s the reason I think we have to look for private donors. But that will not be sufficient. We would have also to ask private companies.” Schraner Burgener said she has interacted with the first Trump administration, meeting regularly with members of the National Security Council and the State Department when she was U.N. envoy for Myanmar. “They know me from this time,” she said. “I will continue the dialogue and clearly if there is something which is not [in accordance with] international law then I would also bring this up, but in quiet diplomacy.” Schraner Burgener hopes that she can win support from the U.S. by persuading Washington that UNHCR’s work advances U.S. interests, particularly in the security area. She recalled conversations she had a couple of months ago with refugees in Burkina Faso, near the border with Mali. “Security is one aspect where they see their own interest,” she said. “And this is a security issue. And so therefore the U.S. would have an interest to also invest in the migration issues, in refugee issues.” But Schraner Burgener says that while she prefers using “quiet diplomacy” to achieve her goals, she is willing to publicly denounce unlawful conduct. “Sometimes you have to be outspoken,” she said. “But when something happens, very totally against international law, then you have to be loud.”