A Syrian Family Counts its Blessings
I meet a lot of refugees in the course of my work with UNHCR. Some open right up, cataloguing the hardships of life in exile, sharing concerns about their children’s future and even revealing marital problems. Once a woman dragged me to her tent and asked me to shout...Lebanon: Little Omar Flies to Finland
“You know how children hit me now? When I start growing up, I can defend myself.” Omar and his sister Majid were born in Syria with a growth-hormone deficiency—the result of a dysfunctional pituitary gland. Neither can grow without continuous hormone and vitamin...
Tanzania cholera epidemic improving but ‘significant challenges’ still remain
United Nations-backed containment measures aimed at stemming the deadly cholera epidemic in western Tanzania’s Lake Tanganyika region appear to be working, the Organization’s refugee agency (UNHCR) announced today amid a tapering off in the number of...
Nepal Earthquake Survivors Look to the Future
One month ago, a devastating earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale destroyed the homes of more than 2.5 million Nepalis. Now begins a race to build temporary shelters before the heavy monsoon rains arrive in June. But rebuilding homes in the flattened rural...
Cholera epidemic claims 31 lives in Tanzania, including 29 Burundian refugees
GENEVA, May 22 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee on Friday reported that a cholera epidemic this week in Tanzania’s lakeside Kagunga area has killed two local people and 29 Burundian refugees, adding to the serious challenges created by the forced population displacement...Some 200 people brought ashore in Myanmar
Edwards – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 22 May 2015, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. UNHCR welcomes the landing today of more than 200 people who had been stranded at sea off the coast of Rakhine State, Myanmar. Following their...
After the Earthquake, Nepal Braces for Monsoons
Dhan Bahadur Tamang, 66, built his two-storey house 35 years ago on a ledge just above a winding dirt road. It is only three hours by car from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, but so isolated by the nearly vertical mountains that it feels like another world. From the front...UNHCR statement on Southeast Asia sea movements
UNHCR welcomes the commitment announced today by the Foreign Ministers of Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to resolve the issue of the thousands of refugees and migrants stranded in boats in the Bay of Bengal and off the coast of Southeast Asia. This is an important...