News

Nyon, 1 February 2013 - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is ringing alarm bells at the impact of austerity policies which are driving millions into poverty. The crisis is generating a category of the ‘new poor’ and a ‘lost generation’ of unemployed youth. Europe, as the IFRC puts it, is ‘strangled by recession’ and everywhere the demand for their help is exploding. The IFRC, in a vast comment on the serious situation in Europe, underlines that the financial crisis has become a humanitarian one as unemployment, rising poverty and homelessness shatter more and more lives.

For UNI, the IFRC statement is timely and demands the attention of the European Union (EU) for a change in economic direction. How many food parcels do we need to set before the EU moves in a new direction?

In its press release issued on 29 February, the IFRC highlights that Red Cross Red Crescent are reporting “an increase in the number of people approaching them for help and support. In 2012, the Spanish Red Cross supported over 1.2 million people directly affected by the economic crisis and this year will expand its social care activities to a further 300,000 people living in conditions of extreme vulnerability. In Greece – where unemployment has now reached 26 per cent – the Hellenic Red Cross has seen an increase in those needing financial aid, food assistance and psychosocial support. A number of Red Crescent societies in Central Asia are also assisting citizens who are returning from dwindling work opportunities abroad to unemployment at home.”

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