UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UN Geneva Press Briefing

OK, Let's start this press briefing of the Information Service of the UN here in Geneva.

Today is Tuesday, 28th of July.

Thank you very much for accommodating our request of our our change of time.

I'd like to start immediately with our colleagues from WHO.

And as you have been told, at 11:15, the IOM Director General, Amy Pope will come to the press room to brief you on victims of trafficking.

So let's start with WHO.

[Other language spoken]

You have brought us Doctor Olufum Milayo Leslie to talk about hepatitis because as everybody knows, today is World Hepatitis Day.

So I'll give you the floor for your introductory remarks unless Christian want to start maybe I don't know.

Indeed.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Alessandra, and hello to everyone.

So good morning everyone.

Today is indeed World Hepatitis Day and as colleagues gather in the Rio de Janeiro for the global World Hepatitis Day commemoration, we are pleased to brief you here today in Geneva on the latest global situation and WHO priorities for accelerating progress towards hepatitis elimination.

You have seen maybe the first remarks yesterday already in the evening with the press release and the company links, so they're pretty useful.

This year's World hepatitis, the theme is hepatitis.

[Other language spoken]

There's a call to break down the barriers that continue to prevent millions of people from accessing prevention, testing and treatment important in just a few hours.

And I think in about one or two hours now in Rio, the the government of Brazil, World Health Organisation and others will convene the high level event World Hepatitis Day 2026, breaking down barriers to accelerate hepatitis elimination.

It's this is in the sidelines of the 26th International AIDS Conference.

And this event will bring together Brazil's Minister of Health, WTO Director General Bajo, Director, Doctor Barbosa, ministers from around the world, civil society leaders, global partners, and all that to reaffirm the political commitment.

And that's the important part here needed to accelerate progress towards the 2026 hepatitis elimination target.

So now to take us through the latest data, again, my pleasure to introduce Doctor Olofen Bilayo Lizzy, she goes by Punmi.

That's much easier for many of you and for me.

She's cross staffing lead here in Geneva for the hepatitis programme and partnerships.

And over to you now for me.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, thank you, Christian.

Go ahead, please, Doctor.

OK, thank you very much.

So as we commemorate World Hepatitis day-to-day, we joined the global community and nearly 300 million people living with hepatitis B&C with a message of both urgency and hope.

Like Christian said yesterday, WHO launched the mid term assessment of the global health sector strategies on HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections.

We are reminded of the important progress the world has made.

But for viral hepatitis.

We are not moving fast enough to achieve our shared goal of eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2013.

So the report tells us two stories.

On the one hand, it demonstrates real reasons for optimism about the hepatitis B childhood vaccination has prevented millions of new infections, how the treatment for hepatitis C has cured infections, and how countries are beginning to integrate hepatitis interventions into pre-existing systems.

So this progress is possible when countries invest in prevention, testing, treatment and strong health systems.

But it also shows that viral hepatitis remains the major communicable disease for which mortality has risen over 17% in the past decade.

Now, this contrasts with major communicable diseases like HIV, where deaths have declined by nearly 60% and continue to decline even as global investments have transformed the trajectory of that epidemic.

In 2024 alone, hepatitis claimed 1.3 million lives.

That brings it to two to three deaths every minute.

So as we speak, people are dying of chronic hepatitis D&C and liver cirrhosis.

Most of these deaths are caused by chronic hepatitis D&C infections that silently damage the liver and lead to severe scarring, liver cirrhosis and liver cancer over many years.

And these are largely preventable deaths.

The reality is that millions of people still do not know that they're infected.

Only around 1/4 of the people living with chronic Hep B and just about 1/3 of those with C have been diagnosed.

So the treatment coverage is far too low.

Less than 5% for hepatitis B patients are receiving treatment, and only 20% of people with hepatitis C have accessed the cure.

So without a dramatic acceleration in testing and treatment, we will not achieve the 2030 target of reducing deaths by 65%.

Now, the report highlights where we must focus our efforts, and I will just quickly go through a few points.

First, we must prevent new infections.

Hepatitis B vaccination is among the most powerful public health tools, and the global infant coverage now exceeds 84% with new infections falling.

Yet too many children in the Africa region are still missing that birth dose and that coverage in Africa is only 17%, making timely birth dose, vaccination and urgent priority.

Additionally, we need to prevent unsafe injections and expand harm reduction for people who inject drugs as this is essential to reduce new hepatitis C infections.

Secondly, we need to dramatically expand diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C&B.

We have the tools.

The science shows that treatment reduces cancer risk.

So the challenge is not scientific is that is ensuring equitable access.

Thirdly, we must strengthen integrated person centred health now.

Hepatitis cannot be a stand alone vertical programme.

So, integrating hepatitis services into HIV, Primary Health care, NCDS and cancer prevention will allow countries to reach more people and use existing resources efficiently, building stronger, resilient health systems, and finally sustain the political commitment.

And investments remain essential now, at a time when many health programmes face financial pressures.

The cost of inaction for hepatitis B will be measured not only in lives lost but also in rising healthcare costs and growing inequalities.

So the message of the midterm assessment is clear.

What we need now is greater urgency, stronger political leadership, and accelerated implementation in the countries carrying the greatest burden.

So today on World Hepatitis, DW2 calls on governments, on partners, civil societies and communities to work together to break down those barriers that continue to prevent millions from accessing prevention, vaccination, testing and life saving treatment.

The challenge for us, therefore, is to move faster because every delay means more infections, more deaths, and we can prevent that.

Thank you very much and happy to all the Hepatitis Day.

Thank you very much.

I take the liberty to also call you for me, Leslie, Doctor Leslie.

I'll open the floor to questions now in the room first.

Robin is our correspondent of the AFP.

[Other language spoken]

So if, if viral hepatitis is the the only major communicable disease for which mortality is is going up, could you tell us a bit more about why, why is it not stable or or even declining?

Why is it still going up?

Thank you, doctor.

OK, That's a really good question.

And part of the reason why it's going on is that, like I said, less than 1/4 of the people who need to be treated even know that they're infected.

So people are not being diagnosed, people are not being treated, less than 5% untreated.

The question is why?

And I guess part of the problem is the infrastructure and the funding landscape to elevate bar hepatitis in a national programme.

For many years, bar hepatitis has been treated as a specialised disease in teaching hospitals in tertiary care centres.

Now look at hepatitis B&C and we look at their spread over the various parts of the regions.

Hepatitis B is concentrated in the Africa region and in the Western Pacific region, while hepatitis C is spread across various regions.

So in many of these regions the programmes do not exist.

And what we're saying now is there's no need to have a vertical public health programme integrating hepatitis, B&C testing and treatment into pre-existing systems, pre-existing infrastructure like HIV or TD NCD structures, Primary Health care will increase, will increase at the cost, affordable with the number of people that have access to diagnosis and treatments.

So like I said, the tools are there, the science is clear, the political will in countries to increase investments and the lack of, shall I say, global funding like HIV really has stunted the the, the the scale up of effective interventions in hepatitis B&C.

So I think I'll stop there.

I hope that was clear.

[Other language spoken]

Any other question for the doctor in the room or let me go to the platform to see if any other question coming from there.

I don't see any other question for you, Doctor.

So thank you very much for briefing us on this World Hepatitis Day.

And Christian, maybe I count on you to, to share the notes of the doctor with the with the journalist.

Thank you very much.

So I'd like now to thank you, Doctor.

I'd like now to welcome our next speaker, who is we have really the honour and the pleasure to have with us the Director General of IOM, Amy Pope.

I'd like to invite her to the podium.

[Other language spoken]

Nice to see you.

Thank you very much, Mrs Pope, to be with us today.

[Other language spoken]

You have a briefing on protecting victims of trafficking in online scam operations.

So we'll take your introductory remarks and then you have kindly agreed to take questions.

So please, thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

It's very good to see all of you here on this.

What is otherwise seems to be a sleepy summer day here in Geneva.

I'm briefing you in advance of World Trafficking Day, which is on Thursday, but about a a phenomenon that we are seeing more and more evidence of.

And I know you've seen some of the press on it, specifically about people who are being trafficked into these online scam centres.

We're seeing so many more of these cases emerge.

Right now.

We're seeing victims from over 80 different countries being trafficked into the can't scam centres.

They're specifically playing out across Asia.

Criminal networks are luring people with a promise of a job.

The job opportunities are being advertised on social media networks.

By and large, they present completely as a regular job.

They're recruiting people who often speak English very well, who often have graduate degrees, some level of education.

But when the the victims themselves show up at the scam centre, their passports are confiscated.

They're often subjected to physical or mental abuse, they are often unable to leave and they find themselves in circumstances that are well beyond their control.

This is one of the fastest growing areas of human trafficking in the world.

It is highly organised, it's highly, highly profitable and it's increasingly global.

What UN ODC put out fairly recently shows that the combined annual losses of these trafficking scams are equal to between 88 and $114 billion last year alone.

Our goal here in briefing this in advance of World Trafficking Day, is to bring some attention to the cost of the people who are being victimised, the traffic, the trafficked people who are being lured into these situations, who are being forced to work against their will in a system that further exploits vulnerable people that the victims of the scam centres.

And what we're seeing is that the people who are being lured in, their families are often victimised as well.

Their families are often selling land or property.

They're raising money, taking on debt in the first instance to help the individual go get the job, but then often because they'll receive demands for ransom.

And by the time the survivors are returning home.

And IOM has worked with now more than 3500 survivors from all over the world, 33 different countries.

When they're coming home, they are coming home often very traumatised, often with very few resources, often in debt, and they've not only lost months or years of their lives, but the security of the families that they were trying to protect.

So this is an important issue for a whole number of reasons.

We're seeing many of the survivors of trafficking actually being identified as criminals, but in reality, they are the the victims of this crime, of this scam.

And so we're increasingly being called to work with governments, being called to work with the victims to prevent the recruitment, to get the word out about what's happening, to support their recovery and to strengthen the cooperation across borders.

Because as we know, criminal networks are able to operate almost seamlessly across borders, escaping detection, escaping prosecution, evading investigation.

World Day Against Trafficking is an important opportunity for us to shine a light on what's happening, to provide a little bit of detail, to give more information to the public and importantly, to make sure that people who are being targeted as victims of these crimes have the information that they need so that they ask the questions and are less likely to be victimised as a part of these scams.

So my goal here, and my gratitude goes to all of you for your interest in this issue, is to make sure that we get this information out widely.

We have information for governments to act and most importantly, by keeping the issue in the public eye, we can help build it.

Understanding and collective action to stop the criminal networks from profiting and exploiting people who can otherwise become extreme, who are being made extremely vulnerable and left with very, very resource, few resources less than when they started out.

So thank you for your attention.

I look forward to having the conversation with you and answering any questions that you might have.

Thank you very much, Director General Pope.

I start with Christian Erich, who's from the German.

[Other language spoken]

I thank you for coming.

You should come a lot more often to the briefings.

Can you tell us what can these people do?

[Other language spoken]

They sometimes have degrees.

They are not totally ignorant, I'm sorry, in a rural setting.

So these are people who who know something of the world.

What can they do to make sure they are not falling victim to a trafficking gang?

And can you expand a little bit on what these people that you have been working with have told you about their situations?

What kind of scams are we talking about and what are they telling you?

How long do they stay in confinement?

How do they get out?

[Other language spoken]

So there what we're hearing and and we're seeing victims from this is this is really widespread.

We've assisted people from over 30 countries, but the information we have is that there are people from more than 80 countries.

And I've had instances where I've been in Southern Africa speaking to governments and, and in response to helping their nationals come home, they had no idea where their, their nationals were in the 1st place.

And So what they're, the way the information is coming in is it presents as a totally legitimate job.

They're particularly seeking people who have English language skills, they're seeking people who have technology skills.

And they're, in general, they're targeting people who have a college degree mostly from countries where they have fewer opportunities.

So the first instance or the first, the first objective here is to get information about these scams out so that it's widespread and that people will question and seek additional information, seek information, seek proof of where they're going, seek proof of the specific place, get phone numbers, get information about what they're supposed to be doing, job descriptions, etcetera.

Because what often presents as something that looks like an ideal job opportunity is just too good to be true.

And people are looking for jobs.

And so they're very easily exploited and they're not asking the follow on questions that you might ask before you're being sent.

Now one thing we've seen, for example, is that many people are coming in on tourist visas.

They're not being given the proper visas that would enable them to work.

So that's one key question you should be asked.

Will you help me to get the proper visa?

If you're being asked to become come in on a tourist visa for a job, that right now, right there is a significant warning sign that people should be aware of.

We're also working with many of many of these survivors of trafficking to build public awareness campaigns.

We have one individual in Kenya who after her experience, has gone out very widely on social media and within communities to make them aware, going out to universities so that they're aware.

The problem is that it's hitting so many different countries right now.

I mean, countries in Southern Africa that have no idea where Lao is, for example, or, or Myanmar, and, and they jump at an opportunity that they see when it comes up.

And so there really needs to be some more vetting.

We also need the governments themselves to be part of that vetting process.

[Other language spoken]

I wanted to know a little bit more about the evolution over time.

Is this really new or is this something that has existed for a long time?

Has the number of people being trafficked increased significantly?

If you have any data that would help.

So I've been working on the issue of trafficking for more than 25 years, and I'd say the issue has involved in a couple of ways.

Number one is the way people are being trafficked right now.

Social media platforms like TikTok are being widely exploited by the traffickers to recruit people into their jobs.

So they're able to target a much wider group of people than traditional trafficking schemes in the past.

2nd it's not.

We don't have great information on how long this has been going on because we now see fairly well developed parts, especially along the borders of some of these countries where there are scam centres, well constructed buildings, clear evidence that it's been going on now for some years.

But the scope and the scale of it has expanded fairly dramatically within the last year.

And then third, the the populations that are being targeted.

At the early days of these scam centres, it was primarily people who are coming out of Asia itself.

The fact that we now have individuals from all over the world who are being trafficked into the country, into these countries, into these scam centres is, is a shift from where we saw the the early evidence of it.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, if I may, I think that Christian's question wasn't answered, just a bit more about the the type of scams.

And then how did the people get out of this?

I would have thought that the people organising this would be worried about them denouncing it.

So how do they actually escape?

So the type of scams are primarily focused on.

We've seen a lot in American markets and English speaking markets.

They're often scams that are targeting the elderly.

We're all familiar with what is what has been the increase in online scamming of, of especially people's life savings.

You call, you give a, a number, you verify a bank account, you verify computer system, you get somebody gets access into your systems.

So this is part of why people being recruited are people who have that kind of technical skill as well as the English language skills.

That's where that's where we're seeing it play out.

So significant impact in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, UK, for example, in terms of people getting out.

Now, some of it is people who are effectively escaping, but we've have seen a fairly significant increase of enforcement authority engagement in Thailand in particular.

The Thai government has recognised the the issue has become more and more engaged in identifying the scam centres and helping to exfiltrate people who are within it or to basically do these busts of the scam centres.

But the reason why they're allowed to proliferate in such high numbers is because they're often operating right at the border.

So you'll have an engaged government like the Thai government that wants to counter it, but it's operating just on the other side of the border and you don't have the the equivalent law enforcement engagement on the other side.

So our estimates is that there are many as 300,000 people who are still being who are still working in these centres.

And I want to emphasise not everybody working in the centre is a victim of trafficking.

Certainly we know some people know what they're getting into, but at least some significant percentage of people are still going into those centres and are still working in those centres and there hasn't been the ability to access them.

Robin, sorry you have a follow up.

Emma, just wondering, did you say there about 300,000 you estimate that are still working worldwide in those kinds of centres?

[Other language spoken]

Robin is from AFP.

[Other language spoken]

The, the governments in some of these host countries, are they, are they turning a blind eye to this effectively or, or even worse, are they actually, are they in on it themselves?

And, and secondly, are you getting much cooperation from the social media companies which are hosting these adverts in terms of whether they're turning a blind eye, Many of the scam centres are operating in parts of countries that do not have strong governance or do not have strong law enforcement networks.

So that is, that is part of why they have proliferate proliferated as much as they have to date.

So our goal in the first instance is to build the awareness the with some of our partners within the UN system to build the investigative tools, to build the to build the capacity of governments to do the kind of investigation and then prosecution of the scam centre operators.

But it's fair to say that the capacity of many of these governments to do that kind of follow through is not where it needs to be to take on the scale of the problem on the issue.

Sorry, I missed your second question, if you don't mind repeating it.

It was on the social media companies in the that are hosting the ads and whether you're getting any cooperation from them.

And you know, social media has been working with the anti trafficking community for many, many years because we have seen since the beginning of social media the exploitation of of the platforms to both lure victims into trafficking schemes, but also to provide access to traffic persons, whether it's sex trafficking, labour trafficking, etcetera.

And there have been some very good examples in the past, but the challenge of where there's been strong cooperation with within social media platforms themselves.

But it's one of these situations where you constantly have to keep up and the traffickers are constantly innovating.

And so identifying what are examples of of posts that are luring people in, by the time you can respond to it, they've evolved.

And so it really this is a place where I think there's promising avenues around the use of AI and analytics to help identify trafficking schemes, but there's still a long way to go before we're able to do so successfully.

Well, I do press Geneva solutions morning.

Thank you very much for coming to to see us.

I have a question regarding the type of conversations that you may be having with the UNUNS wider humanitarian efforts in amid the, the donor crisis in light of the, the procedure.

Well, the, the reports of the facilitation by the IOM regarding deportations from the US, which I think you call voluntary deportations and the assistance that you're providing to those those people such as in third third countries.

There was a report yesterday in in past Blue regarding your, you know, your efforts relating to these deportations.

So I think there might be a little bit of confusion.

I heard in your question a couple of different, perhaps related, but not actually the same thing.

So just to be clear, the third country nationals who are being deported from the United States are being deported involuntarily.

They are not voluntary.

Removals are not the same thing as voluntary returns.

That's and we would not otherwise claim that they're voluntary.

Those are deportations.

There's a second question of where we support people who have been removed, and IOM for many, many years has supported people wherever they are, when they're returned or where they're stranded.

So the work we're doing with trafficking victims, the people who are being trafficked into these countries are not there voluntarily.

Nonetheless, IOM helps provide them with humanitarian support.

Likewise with persons who are being returned into a third country, if the government asked for capacity or humanitarian support for those individuals, IOM, to the extent we have resources to provide them, provides humanitarian support.

The question around engagement with humanitarian partners, UNHCR is also a partner in in that work.

So we have regular conversations with them.

To the extent there are other humanitarian partners, there aren't that many who work on.

[Other language spoken]

We've conflating a bunch of issues.

So there are and others who work in that space.

[Other language spoken]

No, the question is rather, I mean, IOM, just as all the other humanitarian organisations are facing a crisis in, in funding and there's, I'm just interested to know how much that you know, that crisis is impacting the policies that you have towards, you know, these third party agreements and your assistance of what you call voluntary deportations.

No, no, voluntary deportations is not a thing.

There are no voluntary deportations.

Deportation by its definition means that it's involuntary.

So just it's important to clarify.

Second, I think the bigger funding crisis are around things like trafficking.

They're the amount of people who are being trafficked with compared to the amount of resource that is coming in to support those victims and survivors of trafficking is far below what is needed.

Where we also see pretty serious funding gaps are around some of the humanitarian responses, particularly in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo or where we have an emerging, as you know, Ebola situation or in countries like Sudan.

So IOM is operates along the same humanitarian principles as any UN organisation.

We are there to provide support to communities regardless of the background of the individuals, regardless of the politics of the surrounding countries.

That's the same standard we have maintained since the beginning.

We get regardless of what kind of funding situation we are we are in and that hasn't changed.

[Other language spoken]

The red lines still apply.

And our job is to support people who need us most and whether those are victims of trafficking in places like Lao or Myanmar or Cambodia or Thailand, or whether those are persons who are being returned involuntarily somewhere else but find themselves completely vulnerable without resources, without support, not speaking the language.

Our job is as we are able to show up and help provide that level of support to them.

OK, Just as a housekeeping, we have still Associated Press, France, Van Katter and the New York Times.

And Mrs Pope has a hard stop at 45, so let's try to keep it for that time.

Hello, Director General, nice to see you again.

I just want to follow up on the questions from from my dear colleague Paula, because the report in Past Blue, which came out in late June, was pretty explicit about some of the allegations.

They say for example that that the IOM has been closely involved with the agreements in 3rd country deportation agreements, if I understand correctly, criticised for their pasty and for enabling the US to mass deport and disappear people to countries to which they have no ties.

So can you just, there's a lot of concern and criticism about the US policy in general about.

So could you just clarify to swage concerns among some people that IOM may have some role in that and and what exactly is the relationship with U.S.

government on these issues?

Of course, first of all, I want to be clear, there was very much in that Pass Blue article that was not factually accurate.

We've made that feedback to the Pass Blue, to the people who wrote it to make clear that they were inaccurately reporting the information or drawing conclusions that were not based on fact.

So I just want to be absolutely clear about that.

First of all, IOM has no role when a government negotiates an agreement with another government.

[Other language spoken]

That's not what we do.

What we do do is where people need support.

And in these cases, what we found is that many governments who are receiving migrants do not have the capacity to provide support to those migrants.

They need help providing shelter to people.

They need help integrating people.

They need help assessing the protection claims.

They need help identifying whether there are physical or mental health issues that need addressing.

That's where IOM has come in.

We're very grateful also to our partners at UNHCR who have helped identify and respond to any allegations around Reforma or protection issues.

It's critical that there are safeguards in place to help support people who are being returned into what are often very vulnerable situations, people who do not have the contacts, who do not have the networks, who do not have the support.

And our role at IOM has been to provide support to people wherever they are, under whatever circumstances.

[Other language spoken]

So for example, they mentioned that, you know, there was $85 million it was given to IOM from the US and for South Sudan.

And so if I understood you correctly, I'm is not involved in deportations.

But what she said is that if they do get deported, then you can help them once they get there.

Is that correct?

Is that right?

[Other language spoken]

And so I guess, you know, what do you say about that?

You know, I mean, there are concerns that there might be a quid pro quo.

You know, the US gives money to IOM and IOM helps the people.

How do how do you assuage concerns about that?

So there is no 85,000,000 for South Sudan that we're aware of.

[Other language spoken]

We do work with countries as we have since the beginning of time to provide support around things like community stabilisation, around job training, around support to displaced communities, around support to any vulnerable populations that may be coming in and out.

That is what we've always done and that's what we're doing here.

So there's certainly places where we are unable to support because we don't have the capacity or their security issues or there is there insufficient safeguards in place and we're just unable to provide that level of support.

So on on the vast number of third country nationals who are being returned to countries, we're not involved because we cannot get the assurances that we need.

But if there are assurances and if there's a need, again explicitly requested by the host government because they need the capacity, that is where we're able to get involved.

Catherine Hiancorn.

[Other language spoken]

You have to thank you.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning and and really, really happy to have the pleasure to see Amy back in the palace.

We missed you.

[Other language spoken]

First of all, could you kindly send us the notes or the press release with all the data and the information?

That would be really useful.

And one of my question is you explained that more and more educated people are targeted.

Is it something that appeared to be increasing and is it a new trend?

And my other question is about the criminal networks, are they also based in Western countries?

Because you mentioned that it is now taking place over 80 countries.

So I suppose that it's it's going everywhere in the world.

And I was also interested in knowing you mentioned about the the collaboration and then the need to build capacities of most for most of the countries.

Is IOM working with UNOCD with ILO?

Thank you so much for your answers.

So this particular scam centre trafficking scheme is a relatively new model.

We've of course seen trafficking since the beginning of time and since the movement of people.

As I said, I started my own career as a prosecutor for human trafficking cases.

But this particular scam where people are being recruited from completely different parts of the world from different regions into countries to run these these scam centres or run these scams is entirely new.

And it's something that has been evolving at a faster and faster pace over the last couple years.

[Other language spoken]

We first started seeing examples of this maybe just two or three years ago, but now the pace at which we're seeing it has increased quite significantly.

In terms of where the criminal networks are based, The significant networks are actually based within Asia.

But because of social media, because of the ability to now reach people from many, many countries away, their reach has expanded quite significantly.

It is conceivable, of course, that there are enablers who are operating in Western countries and we certainly have many examples of trafficking of persons that has happened within the United States and Europe and other countries that have strong enforcement networks already.

But this is at a scale where they're really taking advantage of the way commerce has developed, the way travel travel has developed, etcetera.

I'd say also the partnership with UNOUNODC and ILO are absolutely critical here.

UN ODC in particular, because of the work they do to train law enforcement so that law enforcement can respond to this phenomenon is absolutely key.

We are by and large, working with governments and with the victims of survivors of trafficking, building awareness of what's happening in forming, using our data to help inform our partners.

But UNODC plays a absolutely critical role here.

And then ILO, because this trafficking, any trafficking scheme is developing out of a labour, A labour market or a labour mobility.

So having ILO setting the standards, helping governments to recognise signs of trafficking or exploitation of workers plays a absolutely important role here as really a partner in the work.

So this is not just about one UN agency.

This is about multi partners.

It's not about just one country.

They're multi partners who are necessary if we're going to get our arms around this current phenomenon.

[Other language spoken]

Please quickly Kathleen, you have a follow up and then we'll go to the New York Times.

Yes, thank you for your answer.

I'd like to know if first of all, is the data well shared the the different we have lost you.

Yes, I'm sorry.

My question is, is the data when shared between the countries and the different UN entities and between the UN agencies?

And also do you have sufficient money, sufficient funds to organise campaigns to inform also countries because they know to know they they need to know about it.

So the data that we're sharing with you is data that is informed by our partners at UNODC.

There's a lot of information sharing exchange between between us.

I'd say that information between the government's really depends on the capacity of the government.

And so as I said, we found a strong partnership with the Thai government, but some of the surrounding countries do not have the level of information or capacity to give the most fulsome reading on what's happening, which is why our estimates are estimates.

They're based on what we're seeing from people who have come out as opposed to the strongest information that we could get on the inside.

And by its definition, trafficking is a criminal enterprise.

It's happening within the shadows.

It's happening with people who are very, very skilled at hiding their activities, at obfuscating their sources of income, at obfuscating the the job even that individuals are going into.

So we should, we should understand that any information we're presenting to you is our best estimate based on information we've received from people who witnessed it.

[Other language spoken]

And then the funds, I love the question.

The answer is absolutely not.

When you think about something that is defrauding people in the billions of dollars, as I said, between East and Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, annual losses are 88 to 114 billion U.S.

[Other language spoken]

And then you think about the very, very relatively disproportionately small resources that are going to fight trafficking, whether it's support for AUN agency, whether it's a support for government, its capacity on the ground, it just doesn't measure up.

So unless we take the the issue quite seriously, we anticipate it will continue to grow.

I know you have to go, but you have accepted to take the very, very last question from me coming, Bruce, the New York Times.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for the briefing.

Just coming back to the role of governments, that does seem to be clear evidence of, of some state complicity, significant state complicity in this.

I'm just wondering, is that limited to taking account of the profits or do you have evidence of some states that are actually active participants in, in organising this stuff?

And then secondly, you mentioned 300,000 people working in scam centres.

What proportion of those are in Asia and what in other regions of the world?

[Other language spoken]

On the numbers, the 300,000 people are in Asia.

Those are the Southeast Asia estimates that that we have.

And, and to be clear, the phenomenon that we're seeing is primarily in Asia.

That is it's, it's a number of countries.

It's it's, you know, we're seeing it play out in places like Thailand, Cambodia, Lao.

We even saw some evidence in the Philippines at one point.

But it is primarily in Asia that it's, that it's playing out.

And then in terms of governments, certainly if there are governments who are playing an active role, they're doing so in contravention of their own laws.

But it also points to a weakness still existent in many, many parts of the world around protections for victims of trafficking.

Protection so that they come forward and share information, sufficiently significant penalties for persons who are trafficking, often sufficient, insufficient capacity to do the investigations.

And so the activity is allowed to continue without the kind of interventions that are absolutely necessary.

And the fact that that the centres are operating across borders gives them additional impunity because when one country may have the appropriate investigative or prosecutorial capacity and then the traffickers cross another country border and they do not have the information sharing they need or the enforcement capacity they need, it allows the traffickers to then escape prosecution or escape being held accountable for what's what's happening.

Mrs Thank you so very much for coming and addressing the journalist on this very important topic.

[Other language spoken]

It's been a pleasure and honour to have you here.

[Other language spoken]

I'll say goodbye and then we'll continue with the briefing.

[Other language spoken]

So thank you very much to Mrs Pope again and the colleagues from IOM.

Let me now go to UNHCR.

Matt has a short announcement for you.

Matt, you have the floor.

If we can connect with Matthew, Matt Saltmarsh online.

[Other language spoken]

You had an announcement about the event of today.

[Other language spoken]

That's right.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning, everyone.

We already sent out an advisory to the Pali media on the commemoration event for the 75th anniversary of the convention, the 1951 Refugee Convention that's taking place in the Palais today.

So you should have that.

The event will start at 4:00 PM and we will have speeches obviously from our High Commissioner, Baram Asali, but as well as officials from Switzerland and from Geneva.

Our newly appointed Goodwill Global Goodwill Ambassador, Wenyang Gabriel, Nadia Murad, who is a Nobel police laureate and human rights activist, Yusra Mardini, who's also a UNACR Goodwill Ambassador and Olympian, as well as other performances.

And really just to let you know that there will be a media stakeout just after that event around 5:00 PM in the Palate.

We're going to send out an advisory via Eunice.

The media stakeout will probably last about 10-15 minutes with our High Commissioner Baham Saleh, and it will take place in Hall 14, which is right next to the cell des Assembly.

So if people, journalists would like to come and join us for that, do let me or my colleagues in the press team here know about that.

So that's the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention today.

Thank you, Ali, I'll, I'll have it back to you.

Thank you very much.

And before I ask if there's any question, Please note that we have sent you the statement of the Secretary General on the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention that is celebrated at this event where you will see that the Secretary General said that the promise of the convention made it made by member states at the time of the convention, the aftermath of the Second World War, is are today under strain.

And he goes on explaining what is happening today when we look at the Refugee Convention and the situation of refugees.

And he says, I call on every member state to renew his commitment to the letter and spirit of the convention and to choose solidarity over indifference and humanity over fear.

And you have the full statement in your mailbox.

Any question to Matt or on the event of this afternoon press conference?

I don't see hands up.

Let me see you on the platform.

There is none.

So thank you very much Matt.

Good luck with the event this afternoon and thanks for the media alert.

[Other language spoken]

The other press conference I wanted to remind you about is also with Nadia Murat.

Like the event of this afternoon, This afternoon is press conference from Mrs Said press take out of High Commissioners Ali Bad.

The event will see the participation of Nadia Murad and she will also give a press conference together with the Permanent Mission of France and her own association called Nadia's Initiative.

That will be on the 30th of July at 1:00 PM on the theme of the commemoration, on the commemoration of the Yazidi genocide.

So that will be in press room, in this press room at 1:00 PM thirty of July.

Please remember this is in person only.

In person only.

So that is on Thursday.

[Other language spoken]

I have a list of people.

No, I don't think they're here, but let me check if by any chance Claire is here.

Yeah, Claire is here.

Actually.

Claire, you're on the grill.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, the grill is the right term because the question is about the heat.

Could you tell us more about the outlook for France and how bad it could get the wildfires with the next heat wave?

And also, are the Alps and Switzerland at risk in your view?

[Other language spoken]

But the outlook for France, I think you have to consult Meteo France.

They are, you know, they are the experts on that.

They're obviously doing a huge amount of work and they are working with authorities in France, you know, to try to minimise, you know, there's this catastrophic damage.

[Other language spoken]

It's not just a case of, of, of heat, it's also, you know, as we know, dry, dry soils, it's wind direction has a big impact on the, the spread of the, the fires.

And what we've seen in in France, I've just seen the most incredible image of a cumulonimbus cloud, which is, you know, it's like the big storm cloud.

It's the king of clouds.

And this was created by, you know, but by the fire.

And from what colleagues told me, it's the first time they've actually seen that in France.

And it's where the fire literally creates its own, its own weather.

But as I said, for the detailed provisions, you do need to contact Meteo, Meteo France because they they you know, they are issuing the alerts and the warnings on it.

I mean, just since this press conference started, I mean, my phone has been pinging non-stop with extreme heat alerts from, you know, from Meteo Swiss.

So we are in for another extreme event, the latest in unfortunately, a series, you know, combined with, with with with, with extreme, with extreme drought as regards the Alps in terms of fire, I think that's probably less likely.

But obviously this, you know, that this heat is going to be absolutely punishing, absolutely punishing for for snow and ice and for for glacier melt.

It's, you know, it's still we'll know more as the season progresses, but it's it's, it's really, really bad news for for the cryosphere, for glaciers, for the environment, for agriculture and obviously for human health.

Sorry, Antonio.

[Other language spoken]

My question is also for for Claire and also on wildfires that are effectiveness pain too.

So can you explain what extent the meteorological conditions have been contributing to the severity and spread of these fires?

And the WMO is always saying that the the climate change is doing these disasters more frequent or more intense.

Do you think these disasters are are being an an example on on what, what we can expect from climate change in the future years?

[Other language spoken]

OK, so on 1st question, to what extent have meteorological conditions impacted the wildlife wildfires in, in, in Spain hugely, absolutely hugely.

You know, we've had, we've had heat wave after heat wave after heat wave, you know, in the, in the past, in the past few weeks, we have got very, very, very dry soils in, you know, in, in many parts of Europe.

And I think from memory, you know, quite early on, back in, I think late May, you know, that the Spanish Prime Minister back then warned that this would be a very, very bad fire season.

As I say repeatedly, you know, the choirs are not started by the weather alone.

You know, quite often they can be started by dry light, dry lightning.

But there are, you know, there can be a number of causes, you know, be it technical, technical problems, electricity lines, humans, arson, dropping cigarettes, etcetera.

But the conditions for the fire weather in, in Spain, obviously, unfortunately in France, in, in parts of Switzerland are there.

And climate change, more extreme heat will certainly, you know, aggravate the risk of fire weather won't necessarily lead to an overall increase in, in, in, in, in wildfires, but it certainly does increase the risk of fire weather.

You know, you know, conversely, you know, we are seeing some summer storms and you know what, what so, you know, parts of Europe need right now is as good heavy drenching of of rain That would you know that that would not solve the problems overnight, but it would certainly it would certainly help in, you know, in the ongoing battles against the wildfires.

If you if you need, I'm just back from from leave, which is why I'm sort of taking part remotely.

But if you need, I can, you know, we do have Spanish speaking experts on on wildfires and I'm happy to, you know, to hook you up to hook you up with them or they will obviously speak English and possibly French as well.

So just send me a, you know, quick WhatsApp or an e-mail if you need, if you need to follow up, I'm sure there will be interest in in this.

Claire, any other question for for the blammo.

[Other language spoken]

OK, So thank you very much.

I just wanted to give you 2 more short announcements as I know that many of you cover the situation.

[Other language spoken]

Just wanted to remind you that the Secretary General is travelling to Cyprus as part of his good office's mission and his strong demonstrated commitment to the Cyprus issue.

He will meet with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders as well as other stakeholders and discuss efforts to advance the peace process and support stability on the island, including through the work of the UN peacekeeping mission on the ground there.

So that is for your follow up in case you want to follow this this visit or communicate this information to your colleagues on the island.

And then also, I wanted to remind you that Friday the Paladin is closed because we commemorate one day earlier, the Swiss National Day.

So there will be no briefing on Friday.

And if there's anything important, of course, we will keep you informed by e-mail.

I think I've given you all I had in Yeah.

So if there are no other questions for me, I don't see any.

Thank you very much.

And I'll see you hopefully this evening at the press conference and or Thursday.

[Other language spoken]

UN Geneva Press Briefing - 28 July 2026