Creating a home from home, far from home in Erbil
ERBIL, Iraq, September 24 (UNHCR) – What had been an empty lot in Erbil’s Ainkawa district in early August is now a sea of white. Close to 300 UNHCR tents are laid out geometrically in an area the size of a city block in the capital of northern Iraq’s...
UNHCR steps up response as 130,000 Syrian refugees cross into Turkey
GENEVA, September 22 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency is stepping up its response to help the Turkish government provide assistance to an estimated 130,000 Syrians who have crossed into Turkey since Friday. The Turkish authorities and UNHCR are preparing for the...
The humanitarian suffering continues in Ukraine, despite a ceasefire
KHARKIV, Ukraine, September 19 (UNHCR) – Under the imposing dome of the Stalin-era train station of Kharkiv, with its paintings of triumphant peasants and workers, dozens of exhausted travellers lie sprawled and sleeping on benches in a corner of the lobby. They are...
Ukraine: the internally displaced struggle to get by
NIKOLAEVKA, Ukraine, September 18 (UNHCR) – The old lady sits on the bed staring at the lavatory in her small room. “I am human, I am not a dog,” she says. “I didn’t ask them to bomb me. I had everything. Now I have nothing.” Tamara is an...
Stateless in the Philippines: Indonesian descendants feel torn between two lands
KIDAPAWAN, Philippines, September 15 (UNHCR) – The question is simple: “Where are you from?” But in this rice-milling community in southern Mindanao, the answers are never straightforward. “My parents are from Indonesia. My mother escaped forced...
Angola Repatriation: Antonio returns home after 40 years in DR Congo
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, August 28 (UNHCR) – When Antonio last stood in his home village of Kwilu, Angola was a colony of Portugal on the verge of becoming independent. A last flourish of fighting in the final weeks of colonialism, forced him to...
Needs soar as number of Syrian refugees tops 3 million
GENEVA, August 29 (UNHCR) -The UN refugee agency reports that Syria’s intensifying refugee crisis will today pass a record 3 million people, amid reports of horrifying conditions inside the country. These include cities where populations are surrounded, people...
Number of displaced inside Ukraine more than doubles since early August to 260,000
GENEVA, September 2 (UNHCR) – The UN Refugee Agency said on Tuesday that fighting in eastern Ukraine, in particular around Donetsk, Luhansk and neighbouring towns, is driving more people from their homes and increasing the need for humanitarian aid. Vincent Cochetel,...