Canadian entrepreneur helps refugees stitch up new future at Swiss sewing workshop
By Robert Gloy in Zurich, Switzerland Among the colourful fabrics and sewing machines in a Zurich clothing workshop, Jamila leans across her workbench and carefully smooths the fabric of a black-and-yellow dress she is making, adjusting the hem and inserting pins here...
UNHCR and OECD launch action plan to boost refugee employment
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, is launching an innovative action plan to expand employment opportunities for refugees. This Action Plan fully supports a new approach, whereby refugees would be...
Rohingya widows worry about their families’ futures
By Tim Gaynor in Kutupalong refugee settlement, Bangladesh In a plastic-roofed shack near an open sewer in Bangladesh, Rohingya refugee widow Sufia Khatun is doing all she can to fend for the family she now heads. Her husband, Nur Mohammad, was struck with a machete...
Bangladesh, UNHCR agree on voluntary returns framework when Rohingya refugees decide conditions are right
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Government of Bangladesh have finalized a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) relating to voluntary returns of Rohingya refugees once conditions in Myanmar are conducive. The Memorandum, signed by the UN High Commissioner for...
My search for safety
At an art event attended by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, Mexican artist Karina speaks about her experience of becoming a refugee after fleeing domestic violence in her home country. ©UNHCR/Michelle Siu In her own words, Karina recounts what she...
Guatemalan network welcomes those fleeing gang violence
By UNHCR Staff in El Ceibo, Guatemala For nearly a decade, Andrés Toribio and his wife opened their home on the Guatemala-Mexico border to provide shelter and protection for people fleeing violence in Central America, knowing that the route to safety can be dangerous....
Racing to avert a monsoon catastrophe in Bangladesh
By Tim Gaynor in Kutupalong refugee settlement, Bangladesh Their few belongings packed into rice sacks, Momena Begum and her husband Mohammad Harez squat on a damp plot of sand just above the waterline, waiting to move out. Almost surrounded by a chest-deep stream,...
From refugee camp to McGill student: Canadian sponsorship program makes a dream come true
Thanks to the Student Sponsorship Program (SRP), Amelie Fabian will be able to create the life she wants for herself By Fatima Muneer in Ottawa, Canada “There’s no need for girls to just get a degree and then get married. We’re in a position where we can go for things...