In a data visualization project entitled ‘Livelihoods, food and futures: COVID-19 and the displaced,’ UNHCR collated statistics from numerous sources to shed more light on the effects of the pandemic on poor and vulnerable people. The storymap illustrates the drastic falls in levels of employment and income in within displaced communities since the onset of the pandemic. It also explores how families are coping to meet basic needs, in many cases forced to cut corners because of shrinking household budgets.
Displaced Persons and Refugees
Comprising roughly half of the world's 272 million migrants, UN Women features migrant women as agents of change and leaders who contribute to their countries of origin and destination.
For most people, 2020 cannot end soon enough. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed nearly 1.8 million people and caused extreme hardship. As the year comes to an end and vaccinations begin, many are hopeful the virus can be contained. But the socioeconomic effects of the pandemic could be felt for years – especially in the world’s least developed countries, where most of the world’s forcibly displaced people live. The UN Refugee Agency remains hopeful. Forcibly displaced people have shown us what it means to be resilient, and what it takes to overcome a crisis.
At the beginning of 2020, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, challenged students to tackle issues related to forced displacement during their debates. The reward? Getting their best ideas shared with policy-makers. More than 20,000 students in 75 countries accepted the MUN Refugee Challenge. They collectively drafted “resolutions” which were reviewed by a panel of experts and young refugees. Here’s a summary of the winning ideas and some of the thinking behind them.
Irrepressible comedian AK Dans was born in the world’s largest refugee camp, Kukuma, in Kenya, after his mother fled South Sudan in the 1990s.
This month, the UN Refugee Agency turned 70 years old. For an organization that should have ceased to exist after three years, it is an uncomfortable birthday that it is not in the mood to celebrate. After WWII, UNHCR had the task of finding homes for Europe’s refugees. Brought into being on 1950, its mandate was time-limited and explicitly non-political, as if its existence was a reminder of miseries that were best swept away along with the rubble. Since, UNHCR has been called upon time and again to do whatever it can to protect vulnerable people uprooted from their homes.
2020 will be a record low for refugee resettlement, UNHCR has warned. “We are dealing with a disappointingly low resettlement ceiling to begin with - a quota of less than 50,000 for the entire year - and this was further impacted by COVID-19 delaying departures and pausing some states’ resettlement programs,” said UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs. According to latest UNHCR data, only 15,425 refugees were resettled from January to the end of September this year, compared to 50,086 over the same period last year. “Current rates point to one of the lowest levels of resettlement witnessed in almost two decades. This is a blow for refugee protection and for the ability to save lives and protect those most at risk,” said Triggs.
Sex and the City co-stars Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon chat about their go-to films for inspiration and what the world needs to fight the coronavirus.
Proud camels and peaceful doves: gifts with meaning
"This is why exile, refugee exile is so devastating, because it is the admission to oneself, that home is not safe anymore. There are very few decisions that a human being can make, that are as difficult as choosing the path of exile. And this is what displaced and refugees do.” Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, is recovering from Covid-19, and says it's given him a sense of the fragility of life. He says the socio-economic effects of the epidemic, including rising poverty, are especially dire for refugees and displaced people.
Mozambique: Assistance for families fleeing conflict in Cabo Delgado
“Give us a space at the table and we’ll change the world,” said Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, an activist from Chad who advocates for environmental justice and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Established in 2007, the High Commissioner’s Dialogue facilitates an exchange of views between refugees, governments, civil society, the private sector, academics and international organizations on emerging challenges in humanitarian protection. This year, UN Refugee’s focus is on how the COVID-19 pandemic affects displaced and stateless people.
In Ethiopia, families displaced by communal violence rebuild their lives, one step at a time