Greater solidarity needed with displaced
GENEVA – In an age of soaring global displacement, countries must transcend their national interests and come together to curb large-scale suffering, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the head of the UN Refugee Agency, Filippo Grandi, declared today. In keynote...
Fights for lifejackets as boat capsized off Egypt
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt – As a fishing trawler packed with hundreds of people flipped and sank off the coast of Egypt last week, Somali Abshiro* suddenly found herself in the water as those drowning clawed at her life jacket. “I have been fighting for my life in the water,...
Mosul offensive increases UNHCR planning
GENEVA – The anticipated Iraqi military offensive to retake Mosul threatens to produce one of the largest man-made displacement crises of recent times, UNHCR’s representative in Iraq has warned. As the clock ticks, the UN Refugee Agency is working intensively with...
UNHCR Nansen Refugee Awarded
GENEVA – Greek volunteers Efi Latsoudi and Konstantinos Mitragas on behalf of the Hellenic Rescue Team(HRT) tonight became the latest in a long line of distinguished everyday heroes to receive UNHCR’s prestigious annual Nansen Refugee Award. Both winners of the UN...
Children in Calais in a world away from home
A centre for young refugees in Saint-Omer offers shelter and protection, as well as the chance to enjoy being children again. On a cloudy day in the northern French town of Saint-Omer, Ibrahim, from Darfur in Sudan, is tending to a crop of vegetables with eight other...
UNHCR saddened by loss of life in boat capsize off Egypt
Egyptian authorities rescue 150 people including Sudanese, Eritreans and Somalis after boat capsizes off Rosetta. At least 42 bodies have reportedly been recovered. GENEVA – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is deeply saddened by the loss of life after yet another boat...
Number fleeing Burundi to neighbouring countries tops 300,000
Reception capacities in host countries Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are severely overstretched, UNHCR warns. GENEVA – The number of people fleeing violence, threats, extrajudicial killings, abduction, torture and persecution in Burundi...
Nigerians displaced by Boko Haram return home to ruins
Around 70,000 people have found destruction, insecurity and scarcity on arrival in Gwoza, a city liberated earlier this year from militants in northern Nigeria. GWOZA, Nigeria – After Nigerian forces liberated this once thriving city from Boko Haram militants,...