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For displaced families in southern Lebanon, damaged homes, insecurity and destroyed infrastructure make returning home unsafe and uncertain.
In 2017, more than 750,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar following violent military crackdowns, joining earlier generations who had sought refuge in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, home to the world’s largest refugee settlement. Nine years later, conflict in Myanmar continues to drive displacement across its borders. In response, the UN Refugee Agency launched its 2026 Myanmar Global Appeal, prioritizing assistance to address urgent humanitarian needs. However, significant funding gaps mean many critical needs are expected to remain unmet, stressing the continued need for international solidarity and support.
Global support for protecting refugees remains resilient, with most people backing asylum despite ongoing concerns about border management, integration, and the fairness of refugee systems.
"Refugees do bring so much to the community, they bring a whole different culture, a whole different lens on life, and that is powerful and important."
War is Mary Maker’s earliest memory. Born in South Sudan and named Nyiriak — meaning "war" — she spent her youth living and working in one of the world’s largest refugee camps. Now a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, she is raising her voice on behalf of those she left behind, helping refugee students land scholarships to top universities.
“I want to be seen. I want to be heard. I want to be acknowledged. I want to be at the table, making decisions and feeling like a part of something. Are you able to see us? Are you? Are you able to go beyond the news and really understand that this is someone like you?”
After her family fled to safety, Mary built a new life of opportunity through education and hard work – finding her feet, and her voice, on stage. In this episode, she shares how she overcame a childhood marred by death and conflict, and how theater became both her refuge and her path forward.
Photo: ©UNHCR
For a few weeks, the world looks in the same direction, shaped by the same matches, the same moments, the same emotions. But beyond the stadiums and the spectacle, football has always existed in its simplest form: a ball, a space, and people willing to play. For refugees, football or soccer - it is a chance to dream again. When you have lost everything, that space matters.
World Refugee Day (20 June) comes at a time when the promise of safety is being tested worldwide. Seventy-five years after the 1951 Refugee Convention, that promise remains clear: people forced to flee must not be returned to danger and must be able to live in dignity. With more than 117 million people forcibly displaced, the need for protection is urgent. This year’s theme, “Until Everyone Is Safe” calls on governments, donors, communities and individuals to uphold asylum, sustain support and defend the principle that safety must never depend on identity, status or circumstance.
Displaced Somali families in Doolow are building climate-resilient mudbrick shelters, improving safety, dignity, livelihoods, and environmental sustainability.
UNHCR has launched the “Gamechanging Team,” a symbolic football squad captained by Canadian star Alphonso Davies, to spotlight the resilience and talent of refugees worldwide ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Featuring players and coaches with displacement backgrounds, the initiative highlights how sport can create opportunity, inclusion, and hope. UNHCR says the campaign aims to challenge stereotypes around refugees while drawing attention to the record number of people forcibly displaced by conflict, persecution, and climate crises around the world.
Fourteen-year-old Maya Sakr sits on a thin mattress in a Beirut school turned shelter, clutching the only thing she carried when bombs fell: a small make-up bag. As her family fled the strikes in the city’s southern suburbs, there was no time for anything else. Now they share a crowded classroom with other displaced families. Her father, weakened by cancer, struggles to access care; her young brother is frightened and confused. At night, echoes of explosions linger. The make-up bag holds more than brushes—it holds Maya’s dream of becoming a make-up artist, and a fragile sense of control in a life overturned by war. Despite it all, Maya says it helps her remember who she is—and who she hopes to become.
In a displacement site in Dédougou, Burkina Faso, families forced to flee violence are transforming small plots of land beside their tents into gardens of resilience with support from OCHA and humanitarian partners.
By growing vegetables they add fresh food to scarce meals, share with neighbors and regain a sense of dignity and purpose. Tending these gardens offers more than nourishment; it brings moments of calm, community and hope amid the uncertainty of displacement.
In Sudan, the conflict between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has plunged the country into widespread bloodshed and humanitarian catastrophe.
The devastating civil war began in April 2023 and is expanding beyond the western Darfur region into central Kordofan, taking its toll on civilians and particularly the most vulnerable, including children.
Eva Hinds, Spokesperson for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Sudan, describes how the agency is supporting boys and girls amid the brutal conflict and ongoing cuts to aid budgets.
In Renk, South Sudan, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador Kristin Davis met families who have fled escalating violence, insecurity and human rights violations in Sudan – many for the second or third time. At the Joda border crossing and Renk Transit Centre, she saw UNHCR and partners providing shelter, health care, clean water, sanitation and protection, even as needs far exceed available resources and funding remains critically low. Women and children, who make up about 80 per cent of those fleeing, shared harrowing stories of violence and loss, while support services for survivors are being forced to close. Discover why Davis says this crisis “demands more attention, more resources and more action – now”.
Inside the Hagadera Refugee Camp in Dadaab, Kenya, Mariam has cultivated a thriving kitchen garden over the past 19 years, following her arrival from Somalia due to political unrest. Supported by the EU-funded Refugee Settlement Project and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), her garden produces nutritious crops like spinach, kale, and jute mallow, surpassing others in quantity and quality. Fellow community members frequently visit to admire her garden and learn from her. The project aims to expand support to another 2,000 households, promoting vegetable gardening and backyard chicken rearing to improve nutrition and dietary diversity for families in the camp.
Theo James visited Syria to meet returning refugees and displaced families, highlighting both hope for rebuilding after years of conflict and the urgent need for continued humanitarian support, in his role as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.