Migrants and Refugees

A woman in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia walks with her grandchildren alongside a train track near Gevgelija, on the border with Greece. They will board the train, hoping to eventually arrive in Germany.
UNICEF/NYHQ2015-2083/Georgiev

UN hails decision by Austria and Germany to take in thousands of migrants and refugees at Hungary border

5 September 2015
Europe

As Austria and Germany begin receiving thousands of refugees and migrants who crossed the border last night from Hungary, the United Nations refugee agency hailed the decision as “political leadership based on humanitarian values,” while also applauding Austrian and German civil society groups gearing up to assist people as they enter their countries.

Civil conflict in the Central African Republic has displaced more than half a million people within the country in the last year, the UN says. UNHCR/B. Heger

UN refugee chief seeks support to assist record number of internally displaced people

11 December 2013
Global

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees today appealed for greater global support to assist the almost 30 million people around the world who are forcibly displaced in their own countries.

Internally displaced Somalis at a feeding centre in Dobley, Lower Juba region.
UNHCR/A. Needham

UN praises Africa for leading way with landmark treaty protecting internally displaced people

6 December 2012
Africa

The United Nations refugee chief today saluted the “historic” entry into force of an Africa-wide treaty – the world’s first – that protects people displaced within their own countries by violence, natural disasters or large-scale development projects.

Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons Chaloka Beyani.
UN Photo/Evan Schneider

Internal displacement remains one of world’s biggest human rights challenges – UN expert

24 October 2012
Global

Internal displacement remains one of the world’s most significant human rights and humanitarian challenges, as millions of people continue to be internally displaced every year by conflict, violence, human rights violations, disasters and development projects, a United Nations independent expert said today.

Family members of Sahrawi refugees in Algeria board flight in Western Sahara to visit their kinfolk (file photo)

UN-facilitated family visits for Western Sahara refugees resume

7 January 2011
Africa

The United Nations refugee agency announced today that its programme to facilitate family visits for Western Sahara refugees who have been separated for more than 30 years has resumed.

High Commissioner António Guterres meets Saharawi women on his way to a UNHCR-funded project in Tindouf.

UN agency urges resumption of family-visit flights for Western Sahara refugees

20 September 2010
Africa

The United Nations refugee agency said it is seeking to clarify why a family-visit flight for Western Sahara refugees had to be aborted last week, adding that it hoped the confidence-building measure will be able to resume as soon as possible.

Internally displaced Congolese on the move in North Kivu province after an FDLR attack

Rwandan rebel attacks lead to more displacement in eastern DR Congo, UN says

24 February 2009
Africa

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today it continues to be extremely worried about rising violence against civilians in the eastern Congolese province of North Kivu, where attacks by Rwandan Hutu rebels have sparked new displacement.

Boat people at the centre on Lampedusa Island

Overcrowding of boat people on Italian island worries UN refugee agency

23 January 2009
Europe

The United Nations refugee agency today expressed concern over the overcrowded conditions faced by nearly 2,000 boat people, including asylum seekers, currently crammed into one reception centre on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

Ben Affleck in Africa during the shooting of the "Gimme Shelter" video

Actor Ben Affleck and Rolling Stone Mick Jagger join forces to help UN refugee agency

17 December 2008
Africa

Actor-director Ben Affleck and Rolling Stone singer Mick Jagger today released a short film to help raise $23 million for United Nations efforts to pay for clean water and emergency aid kits for 250,000 people driven from their homes by renewed fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

António Guterres addresses press conference

UN refugee agency wants to help world’s 23 million internally displaced persons as well

6 October 2006
Africa

The desperate situation of more than 2 million Sudanese uprooted in Darfur highlights the international challenge of providing protection to some 23 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) around the world, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres said today.