The Official Facebook Page of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)
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- December 14, 1950
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Gimme Shelter: Give Shelter, Save Lives
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UNHCR We've formally approached the government of Laos for access to the 4000 Lao Hmong forcibly returned from Thailand this week. Among those returned were people we recognized as being in need of international protection.
www.unhcr.org
Ethnic Hmong stand inside a truck at the Ban Huay Nam Khao camp in Thailand's Phetchabun province before being forcibly repatriated to Laos.
UNHCR We've been calling on the Thai Government to immediately halt its ongoing forced return of some 4000 Lao Hmong. Forced return not only endangers the protection of the refugees but sets a very grave international example.
www.unhcr.org
GENEVA, December 28 (UNHCR) – UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, appealed to the Thai Government on Monday to immediately halt its ongoing forced return of some 4000 Lao Hmong to the Lao People's Democratic Republic from two camps in northern and northeast Thailand.
UNHCR Before you begin the season's festivities please give some thought to people in Omar's position. Omar and his family were forced to flee Iraq in 2005. They are banned from Jordan for 5 years and their Syrian visa has just expired. Returning to Iraq means enduring unemployment, insecurity and minimal public services. Om...ar would prefer to pitch his tent on the border rather than return to Iraq.
www.unhcr.org
DAMASCUS, Syria, December 21 (UNHCR) – Omar Salman's* Syrian visa expired two weeks ago. A refugee from neighbouring Iraq, he believes his family's residency permits will not be renewed but says that returning to Iraq is not an option.
UNHCR Due to changing weather conditions, Dulane was forced from his drought-ridden home in eastern Ethiopia and travelled to Dadaab in Kenya. Now he and his family face another feature of climate change - flooding. Meteorologists fear that torrential El Nino rains, a phenomenon caused by the periodic warming of the oceans, ...will once more cause widespread flooding over a wide area in eastern Africa this year and in early 2010.
www.unhcr.org
DADAAB, Kenya, December 18 (UNHCR) – Dulane Jama and his family suffered in silence for three years in a remote corner of eastern Ethiopia before he finally decided to go and look for a safe place to live before they all died.
UNHCR Our photo unit is introducing a new feature for our Facebook supporters. Beginning this Saturday, you will be able to see a special set showcasing our best photos of the week. Please share this set on your profile if you like them. Let us know your thoughts, there are some poignant pictures here.
www.flickr.com
A collection of our top photos of the week.
UNHCR We've sent all-weather tents and other relief supplies to Hangu in north-west Pakistan to support the influx of displaced people. Approximately 40,000 people fled their homes in Orakzai as military operations continue against militants in the area. The difficult security situation in the Hangu district hampers our acce...ss to the site, but we're working with local partners to provide assistance.
UNHCR This sad story reflects those of many asylum-seekers who put themselves at the mercy of others to help them reach safety. Tsitsi Makwiyena, an 18-year-old Zimbabwean, was raped by men who promised to take her across the border to South-Africa. She is now looking for work in Mahkhado, 100km north of Johannesburg, and caring for Desmond - her week-old son.
www.unhcr.org
The week-old baby she holds is the price 17-year-old Tsitsi Makwiyana paid for fleeing Zimbabwe in search of a better life. The South African truck drivers who helped her flee also raped her and left her pregnant, says the asylum-seeker in Makhado, South Africa. 'Now I must think about the baby.'
UNHCR This is a remarkable photo set showing how climate change is forcing people to leave their land and homes behind. In the last year alone, over 20 million people were forced on the move by climate change-related factors. Please help increase understanding by sharing this photo set on your own Facebook profile.
www.flickr.com
Climate change should not be considered a distant worry. A staggering 36 million people were displaced by natural disasters last year, of whom more than 20 million were forced on the move by climate change-related factors.
UNHCR A refugee camp might seem like an unlikely place for a conservation project. But Sherkole in the western highlands of Ethiopia is showing that it can be done. The results are positive.
www.youtube.com
UNHCR Climate change should not be considered a distant worry. A staggering 36 million people were displaced by natural disasters last year, of whom more than 20 million were forced on the move by climate change-related factors. Climate change can enhance the competition for resources – water, food, grazing lands – and that competition can trigger conflict.
www.unhcr.org
Drought leaves this land barren in northern Afghanistan. Guterres noted that the frequency of droughts was steadily increasing and testing the resilience of entire communities.
UNHCR This new photo set documents the day to day life of urban refugees in South Africa. It features their struggle to fit in since last year's xenophobic violence
www.flickr.com
UNHCR's South Africa: Searching for Coexistence set
UNHCR A growing number of civilians are fleeing Equateur province of northwestern DRC as instability persists in the area. UNHCR and other aid agencies are working to help 84,000 of them with basic humanitarian assistance such as shelter, food, healthcare. Some are coming wounded by gunshots while some women and girsl are coping with the trauma of rape.
UNHCR When refugees and internally displaced people move in to urban areas, it can create tensions within the host community. As you will see in this video from South Africa, these tensions can bubble over into xenophobic attacks:
www.youtube.com
Living in Pretoria as a refugee or asylum-seeker is challenging. Most either live rough on the streets or in cramped apartments in townships. There are also tensions with locals because of the perception that foreigners get a better deal than South African citizens.
UNHCR The number of those displaced by natural disasters is dwarfed by the number of people whose security and livelihoods are being steadily undermined by the longer-term consequences of climate change: droughts and unpredictable rainfall patterns, the degradation and desertification of the land, coastal erosion and salinification.
www.nytimes.com
The impact of climate change will be felt most strongly by those least equipped to deal with it.
UNHCR It's difficult for the 67,800 refugees and asylum-seekers (mainly from Myanmar) registered with the UN refugee agency in Malaysia to work legally, so projects run by refugees to help themselves are especially important. This is a great example of refugees supporting themselves.
www.unhcr.org
A beehive of activity surrounds Kyu Manda as seven of her fellow Myanmar refugees bend over worktables in a small room in Kuala Lumpur, sewing Christmas wall-hangings and knitting Christmas tree ornaments.
