16 Days of Activism: Afghan girl embraces new beginning after escaping forced marriage
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, December 5 (UNHCR) – When her abusive, drug addict father told Zakia* that she must marry a man twice her age, the then 15-year-old was despondent. But after the Afghan refugee protested, she was barred from leaving the family home in the northern...
The forgotten refugees
Coping in a refugee camp is difficult at the best of times but when you are disabled, accessing communal services and living in temporary shelter brings added complications. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), with the support of donors like you, is working to address the...
Life Through a Lens
More than half of the 3 million people driven into exile by the conflict in Syria are children. Haunted by violence and loss, they have also been deprived of a voice. At Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, a UNHCR workshop entitled “Do You See What I See” has been giving...
Family Ties
Syria’s bloody civil war has displaced almost half the country’s population, with more than 3 million refugees registered in the region. Over the past couple months alone, more than 200,000 Syrian Kurds have fled the besieged city of Kobane into neighbouring...
WFP food cuts threaten tens of thousands of Syrian families, UNHCR warns
GENEVA, December 1 (UNHCR) –The UN refugee agency today called for urgent international support to the World Food Programme (WFP), which has been forced to suspend food assistance for more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees because of a funding crisis. “This...
World AIDS Day: UNHCR stresses need to close the gap in HIV treatment
GENEVA, December 1 (UNHCR) –High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres on Monday marked World AIDS Day by stressing the importance of closing the gap between people who have access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services and those who are being...
16 Days of Activism: UNHCR vows to work for the end of child marriage
GENEVA, November 25 (UNHCR) –UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres on Tuesday condemned child marriage and said his organization must do its utmost to help stop the practice, which affects an estimated 15 million girls every year. His remarks came in a...
UNHCR seeks to reassure refugees in Kenya facing food shortages
NAIROBI, Kenya, November 21 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency has sought to allay the concerns of hundreds of thousands of refugees facing food ration cuts in northern Kenya and stressed that these are not linked to the repatriation of Somalis. “We call for calm...