Migrants and Refugees

Women and children wait for aid in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where one million Rohingya refugees now live.
Olivia Headon/IOM

UN chief calls for ‘solidarity, compassion and action’ on World Refugee Day

20 June 2018
Global

With more than 68 million people worldwide displaced due to conflict or persecution — roughly equivalent to the population of Thailand— the head of the United Nations has called for unity and solidarity as a first step to support them.

A Rohingya woman crosses the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh near the village of Anzuman Para in Palong Khali.
UNHCR/Roger Arnold

UN mobilizes in Rohingya camps to support babies born of rape; young mothers face stigma

19 June 2018
Asia Pacific

Despite challenges brought on by the arrival of the monsoon season this month, United Nations agencies in Bangladesh continue to support nearly one million Rohingya refugees, including thousands of victims of sexual violence.

Rohingya families arrive at a UNHCR transit centre near the village of Anjuman Para, Cox’s Bazar, south-east Bangladesh after spending four days stranded at the Myanmar border with some 6,800 refugees. (file)
UNHCR/Roger Arnold

For Rohingya refugees, imminent surge in births is traumatic legacy of sexual violence - special report

11 May 2018
Asia Pacific

Late last year, as violent repression in Myanmar sent Rohingyas fleeing to safety in Bangladesh, women from the mainly Muslim minority were subjected to what a United Nations official called “a frenzy of sexual violence”.

Nastaran Fekri (left) and Rita Butmann (striped shirt) teach a workshop class at the ReDI school in Berlin. Set up for refugees without computer access at home, the school’s three-month course in coding takes students with basic skills to the point where they can build their own online store
UNHCR/Gordon Welters

New UN-backed action plan promotes hiring of refugees

24 April 2018
Global

A newly-launched action plan that encourages employers to expand job opportunities for refugees aims to be a “win-win situation” for both sides, as well as host communities, according to a senior United Nations official.

Young refugee girl sits for the end of term exams at Mogadishu Primary School in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.
UNHCR/S. Otieno

‘It’s her turn,’ says UN agency, issuing global call to close critical gap in refugee girls’ education

7 March 2018
Global

By secondary-level education, refugee girls are only half as likely as their male peers to enrol in school – even though they make up half of the school-age refugee population, according to a new study released Wednesday by the United Nations refugee agency.

UNHCR staff greet refugees on arrival at Pratica di Mare military airport after an evacuation flight from Libya. (file)
UNHCR/Alessandro Penso

UN agency evacuates more than 1,000 refugees from Libya over past three months

15 February 2018
Africa

More than 1,000 highly vulnerable refugees have been evacuated out of Libya since November by the UN refugee agency, which is searching for “durable solutions” for these people in third countries.

Rohingya refugee children from Myanmar stand outside Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh (July 2017).
<a href=http://bit.ly/2w1Oddr>Poppy McPherson/IRIN</a>

UN human rights chief points to ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’ in Myanmar

11 September 2017
Asia Pacific

The United Nations human rights chief today lashed out at the treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar which has led to more than 300,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh in the past three weeks, as security forces and local militia reportedly burn villages and shoot civilians.

UN Special Representative for International Migration Louise Arbour.
UN Photo/Mark Garten

FEATURE: Highlighting ‘positive impact’ of migration key to changing policies, public opinion – UN envoy

28 April 2017
Global

Recognizing that the issue of large movements of refugees and migrants is too vast for any one country to handle on its own, the United Nations convened a meeting of world leaders in September 2016 with the aim of finding durable solutions. At the summit, all 193 Member States came together around one plan, the New York Declaration, expressing their political will to save lives, protect rights and share responsibility on a global scale.

IOM Director General William Lacy Swing.
IOM

INTERVIEW: ‘It is important to let the positive side of migration be told’ – IOM Director-General

20 December 2016
Global

Every day, for the past three years, just over a dozen migrants have died on average, or one person every two hours, according to William Lacy Swing, Director-General of the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM), in a message to mark the International Migrants Day, 18 December.

Special Adviser Karen AbuZayd prior to the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants, addressing large movements of refugees and migrants. Photo/Amanda Voisard

INTERVIEW: New global compact 'should make a difference' in lives of refugees and migrants – outgoing UN Special Adviser

28 October 2016
Global

The adoption of what has been dubbed the “New York Declaration” should make a difference in the lives of refugees and migrants, an outgoing UN Special Adviser has underscored.