Hundreds of UN staff in Swiss city protest against job cuts triggered by Trump

GENEVA – Hundreds of UN staff protested outside the UN European headquarters on May 1 against job losses within the global body due to

major aid cuts by US President Donald Trump

and other donors.

Switzerland’s Geneva, which calls itself the “City of Peace”, is a humanitarian and diplomatic hub, employing more than 30,000 people in the sector, according to cantonal authorities.

Protesters from the UN and its specialist agencies held banners reading: “Stop firing UN staff now” and chanted: “UN staff are not a commodity”. 

Smaller protests also took place in Thailand and Myanmar on May 1, UN staff said.

While short-term contractors and employees at some agencies, such as the International Organisation for Migration, have already been informed of redundancies, many thousands more are coming.

The deepest cuts are expected at agencies heavily reliant on voluntary funding from former top donor the US, such as the World Food Programme or the UN refugee agency.

“They tried to keep me, but it was impossible,” said Ms An Cuypers, a human rights lawyer, whose temporary contract at the UN Human Rights Office was not renewed. “So we are here now: hiring freeze, no budget.”

Ms Severine Deboos, chairwoman of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Staff Union, said that up to 250 ILO employees had been made redundant since January.

“We feel lost. We don’t know how to face this,” she said.

“What is complicated and very stressful, there is no real safety net,” she added, saying some did not have access to Swiss unemployment benefits and face expiring visas. 

An ILO spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

Ms Grace, a UN employee who declined to give her last name, said it was important to stand up for aid workers who had sometimes risked their lives to help people in conflict.

“The UN stands for everybody else, but nobody stands up for the people behind the UN,” she said. REUTERS