refugees

Syrian Kurdish refugees cross into Turkey from Syria near the town of Kobani.
UNHCR/I. Prickett

UN refugee agency posts largest-ever budget as funding pledges drop by a quarter

9 December 2014
Faced with multiple large-scale emergencies in the Middle East and Africa, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees today warned donors at the agency’s annual pledging conference that the world’s humanitarian financing system was “close to bankruptcy.”
High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres.
UNHCR/Jean-Marc Ferré

As global crises multiply, UN official urges rethink for overstretched humanitarian system

30 September 2014
The global humanitarian system has become dangerously overburdened as it faces a widening front of crises and conflicts, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned today, as he urged a rethink of how the international community will confront the growing challenges of the 21st century.
South Sudanese refugees, many of them women and children, arrive by boat in Ethiopia.
UNHCR/L.F. Godinho

UN refugee chief warns against overlooking humanitarian crises in Africa

29 September 2014
The United Nations refugee chief today warned the international community about the risks of overlooking the humanitarian crises in Africa, calling for a renewed commitment to preventing conflict and ending protracted displacement.
Asylum-seekers and economic migrants take to the seas, waiting out the dangerous journey in the boat's cramped cargo space.
UNHCR/A. d'Amato

Syria, Iraq among crises driving some 330,000 to seek refugee status – UN agency

26 September 2014
The number of people seeking refugee status in industrialized countries climbed again in 2014, driven largely by the wars in Syria and Iraq, as well as conflict and instability in Afghanistan and Eritrea, according to a new United Nations Refugee agency (UNHCR) study released today.
Photo: UNHCR/M. Sibiloni
UNHCR/M. Sibiloni

More than 300 die in boat tragedies on Mediterranean, marking year’s deadliest week – UN

26 August 2014
The past few days have been the deadliest this year for people making irregular crossings on the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe, with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reporting that at least 300 people have died in successive boat tragedies.
Fishermen manoeuvre a boat in a waterway near Sittwe in Myanmar. People risking their lives to leave Myanmar and cross the Bay of Bengal board boats in locations like this.
UNHCR/V. Tan

Over 20,000 people risked their lives in Indian Ocean sea crossings this year – UN report

22 August 2014
Over 20,000 people risked their lives in sea crossings in the Indian Ocean in the first half of this year, many of them Rohingya who fled Myanmar, according to a new report released today by the United Nations refugee agency.
Having lost everything, many displaced Palestine refugees from Syria have one main vegetable- or grain-based meal a day. Meat and fish rarely feature in the diet due to their high cost. Maashouk gathering, Tyre, South Lebanon. 22 May 2014
Kate Brooks/UNRWA Archives

Lebanon faces ‘national calamity’ as refugee crisis deepens, UN relief official warns

14 July 2014
The top United Nations relief official in Lebanon today warned of the implications for Lebanon as the number of refugees in the country grows amid the ongoing conflict in Syria as well as unrest in Iraq and now Gaza.
Solar lantern in use by a refugee woman and a girl.
UNHCR/S. Nambu

IKEA sustainable lighting initiative seeks to brighten lives of refugees in UN camps

4 February 2014
The IKEA Foundation has launched a two-month campaign to raise funds to provide solar-powered lighting and other renewable energy technologies in refugee camps run by the United Nations through the sale of light bulbs in its stores around the world.