COP26: UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Emtithal Mahmoud calls for urgent global action in new poem highlighting impact of climate change on humankind
World champion poet, Emtithal Mahmoud performs and releases new poem at COP26 to highlight how the climate crisis is a human crisis, particularly for refugees and those displaced. Emotive poem highlighting discussions with refugees living on the front lines of the...
UNHCR: Urgent steps needed now to mitigate climate impact on displaced people
There is now a clear link between climate-related emergencies and forced displacement, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, said today, imploring leaders to change words to action and step up support for people forced to flee, and their hosts, to avert and mitigate loss and...
Libya: First evacuation flight to Niger in over a year brings 172 asylum-seekers to safety
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, evacuated 172 vulnerable asylum seekers out of Libya to safety in Niger on the evening of 4 November. It was the first evacuation flight to Niger in more than a year, after the Libyan authorities lifted a blanket ban on humanitarian...
Meet the Syrian cartoonist behind UNHCR’s first-ever NFT fundraiser
To mark the UN Refugee Agency’s 70th anniversary, award-winning cartoonist Hani Abbas has created seven images that will be sold as digital assets to raise funds for Afghanistan. By UNHCR Staff Syrian-Palestinian cartoonist Hani Abbas, 44, was born and grew up in...
Volunteers boost Sama Bajau birth registration amid pandemic
Since 2019, a community outreach programme has registered 900 of the indigenous seafarers in the Philippines who were at risk of statelessness. By Maria Jorica Pamintuan in Zamboanga City, Philippines At 7:30 on a sunny Saturday, Almalyn Akmad stands beside a waiting...
UNHCR urges governments to accelerate progress and resolve plight of world’s stateless
More action is needed to resolve the plight of millions around the world who are still without citizenship, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, urged today as it marked seven years since the launch of its #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness. “Significant progress has...
Rohingya refugees restore depleted forest in Bangladesh
Four years after swathes of forest in southern Bangladesh were cleared to make way for Rohingya refugees, projects to restore the ecosystem and “re-green” the camps are yielding results. By Regina De La Portilla in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh Mohammed Ali, 28, is a...
UNHCR begins airlifting aid to Kabul
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today’s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. A plane carrying winter relief from the UN Refugee Agency’s global stockpiles in Dubai...