refugees

An Afghan refugee is vaccinated against COVID-19 in Rawalpindi in Pakistan.
© UNHCR/Asif Shahzad

Refugees face dire consequences from COVID-19 underfunding, UNHCR warns 

17 September 2021
Migrants and Refugees

Underfunding has left a “yawning gap” in the UN Refugee Agency’s ability to protect forcibly displaced people worldwide from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UNHCR said on Friday. 

Volunteers in Lebanon help elderly Palestinian refugees to register for the COVID-19 vaccine on the Ministry of Health's platform (file photo).
Fatima Abdel Jawad

Refugee resettlement numbers yet to recover amid pandemic

5 August 2021
Migrants and Refugees

The number of refugees given shelter in safe host countries plunged last year because of pandemic border restrictions, which continue to hamper the resettlement of vulnerable people. 

Colombian refugee Agapito Escobar with his wife, Wilma, at home in San Lorenzo, Ecuador.
© UNHCR/Jaime Giménez

Pandemic making life harder for older refugees in Latin America

26 May 2021
Migrants and Refugees

The COVID-19 pandemic is worsening the already difficult situation of older refugees across Latin America, according to a joint assessment published on Wednesday by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and the NGO HelpAge International. 

Displaced families wait in line for monthly food rations in Damascus, Syria.
© WFP/Hussam Al Saleh

During relative calm, growing humanitarian suffering in Syria, a ‘tragic irony’  

26 May 2021
Peace and Security

Violent conflict, terrorism and human rights abuses continue in Syria as its besieged population suffers economic destitution, displacement, detention and abduction, the UN’s Special Envoy for the country told the Security Council on Wednesday. 

Migrant children at Nest, a UNICEF-supported child friendly space in Tijuana, a border city of Mexico adjacent to San Diego of the United States.
© UNICEF/Luis Kelly

UNHCR chief calls on US to end COVID-19 asylum restrictions at the Mexico border

20 May 2021
Migrants and Refugees

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has appealed to the Government of the United States to “swiftly lift” the public health-related asylum restrictions that remain in effect at the southern border, and to restore access to asylum for the people “whose lives depend on it”.

Syrian refugees in Jordan are being resettled in Canada
IOM/Muse Mohammed

Pandemic curbs trend towards ever-increasing migration

15 January 2021
Migrants and Refugees

Travel restrictions and other curbs to movement put in place in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, have put a significant dent in migration figures, but the overall trend shows 100 million more people living outside their countries of origin in 2020, compared to the year 2000, a new UN report revealed on Friday.

Twenty-four years after the Rwanda genocide, survivor Liberée Kayumba, a Monitoring Officer with WFP, is now helping refugees coming to the country.
WFP/Jonathan Eng

FROM THE FIELD: The genocide survivor helping others avoid starvation

7 January 2021
Humanitarian Aid

During the 1994 Genocide Against The Tutsi In Rwanda, Liberee Kayumba avoided starvation thanks to emergency rations from the World Food Programme (WFP). Today, she is helping to ensure that Burundian refugees in the country have enough to eat.

A 33-year-old man from Afghanistan, pictured with his family on the Greek island of Lesvos, is hoping to be relocated to Germany.
© UNICEF/Canaj Magnum Photos

The virus that shut down the world: The plight of refugees and migrants

29 December 2020
Migrants and Refugees

In part four of our review of the global impact of COVID-19, UN News considers the new challenges faced by refugees and migrants during 2020; from a heightened risk of catching the COVID-19 virus in crowded camps, to being stranded due to travel restrictions, and becoming the targets of criminal gangs.

Thirty-two-year-old Syrian refugee Wafaa pins her three-year-old daughter Yasmine's hair at their home in Barja, Lebanon. They are awaiting resettlement to Norway.
© UNHCR/Diego Ibarra Sánchez

Refugee resettlement numbers fall to lowest in two decades: UNHCR 

19 November 2020
Migrants and Refugees

Refugee resettlement numbers will be at a “record low” this year, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday, with only  15,425 people resettled in the first nine months of 2020, compared to more than 50,000 in 2019. 

A woman holds her child in Balukhali refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, southern Bangladesh.
UN Women/Allison Joyce

Ending statelessness ‘a matter of political will’, says UN refugee agency chief

11 November 2020
Migrants and Refugees

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has called on world leaders to take bold and swift action to eradicate statelessness by 2024.