Iraqi schools face a desk deficit
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept 30 (UNHCR)—While many Iraqi students were enjoying the last weeks of summer before school resumed, the classrooms of al-Asil elementary school in Baghdad’s Mansour neighbourhood were full. Here, students whose families had been uprooted by...
UNHCR seeking urgent access to thousands fleeing Bangui, CAR violence
GENEVA, Sept 29 (UNHCR)—Fighting between rival militias in the Central African Republic capital of Bangui since Saturday has left at least 36 people dead, forced thousands to flee their homes and moved the reconciliation process a step backwards, the UN refugee agency...
Salzburg, taken aback by number of refugees, scrambled to set up reception facilities
SALZBURG, Austria, Sept 28 (UNHCR)—Nobody in Salzburg ever expected the refugee crisis to hit this close to home. So when Michael Haybäck, the city’s director of public order, received a call at 8.30pm one night in early September, he had to think fast. Martin...
Crossing to Safety
Steady streams of traffic flow in both directions across the floating bridge that spans the Euphrates River near Bzeibiz, Iraq. Young men pushing wheelbarrows full of watermelons, cucumbers and tomatoes weave in and out of families lugging oversized suitcases. Some...
Young Afghans Weigh Their Future
Sonita has only seen Afghanistan through the eyes of others: on her relatives’ mobile phones, in films and in Internet videos. Zia has been there just once, to apply for a passport. But these two young Afghan refugees living in Iran are not giving up on their country,...
The challenge of life in their Afghan homeland for children born in exile
KABUL, Afghanistan, November 20, 2014—The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted 25 years ago today to protect children like Hasanat and Aisha. The two have returned to a homeland, Afghanistan, that they had heard much about but never...
Emotional graduation ceremony triggers memories of Burundian scholar’s journey
NAMPULA, Mozambique, December 24, 2014 – When Oliviet Nyankuru heard his name being called out at a recent graduation ceremony in Mozambique’s Lurio University, he became emotional at the thought of his long journey to get there. “I remembered my whole...
Home Alone: South Sudan teen leads her young siblings to safety in Uganda
BOROLI REFUGEE SETTLEMENT, Uganda, September 4, 2014—When 13-year-old Yayo Tangko turned up at the Boroli refugee settlement in Uganda earlier in 2014 with her four younger siblings, she feared the worst for her missing parents. “They are dead, because otherwise...