Hope and Beauty
Solidarity amidst extreme hardship
Medical doctor Tefera Tewodros was among the first refugees to reach safety in East Sudan at the onset of the crisis last November in Ethiopia鈥檚 Tigray region. Stunned by the sheer number of people streaming across the border, many sick or wounded, he realized he had to step up and help. He went to offer his support to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and the Sudanese Commission for Refugees (COR) at the Hamdayet transit centre. The very next day he started volunteering at the health clinic, run by the Sudanese Red Crescent Society. Since then, he has been living and working at the health clinic in the border town of Hamdayet in Kassala state, where the majority of the 60,000 refugees fleeing the conflict in Ethiopia have sought safety.
"[In Yemen] the situation is quite desperate. We have probably two thirds of the population which relies on our humanitarian assistance for their daily survival. We have half of the health facilities that have been destroyed by five years of the conflict.
As rains approach, the race is on to get aid to thousands seeking safety in a remote village in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo. The insecurity and violence surrounding last December鈥檚 elections have forced over 100,000 people like him to flee 鈥 some into neighbouring Cameroon, Chad, the DRC and the Republic of the Congo, while around 100,000 people are displaced inside CAR. So far, and its government partner have registered over 22,000 people and will update the population figures based on actual registrations.
Ten crises to watch in 2021
Find helpful , on asylum procedures, or read more about your rights and duties.
In a data visualization project entitled 鈥楲ivelihoods, food and futures: COVID-19 and the displaced,鈥 collated statistics from numerous sources to shed more light on the effects of the pandemic on poor and vulnerable people. The storymap illustrates the drastic falls in levels of employment and income in within displaced communities since the onset of the pandemic. It also explores how families are coping to meet basic needs, in many cases forced to cut corners because of shrinking household budgets.
Despite an estimated 1.44 million refugees in urgent need of resettlement globally, only 22,770 were resettled through , the UN Refugee Agency, last year. These are the lowest refugee resettlement numbers the agency has witnessed in almost two decades. The drop stems from low quotas put forward by states, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed departures and programmes. With 85 per cent of the 20.4 million refugees under UNHCR鈥檚 mandate hosted in developing regions, resettlement is a tangible way in which states can better protect refugees, demonstrate solidarity and support host countries.
Comprising roughly half of the world's 272 million migrants, features migrant women as agents of change and leaders who contribute to their countries of origin and destination.
For most people, 2020 cannot end soon enough. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed nearly 1.8 million people and caused extreme hardship. As the year comes to an end and vaccinations begin, many are hopeful the virus can be contained. But the socioeconomic effects of the pandemic could be felt for years 鈥 especially in the world鈥檚 least developed countries, where most of the world鈥檚 forcibly displaced people live. The remains hopeful. Forcibly displaced people have shown us what it means to be resilient, and what it takes to overcome a crisis.
At the beginning of 2020, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, challenged students to tackle issues related to forced displacement during their debates. The reward? Getting their best ideas shared with policy-makers. More than . They collectively drafted 鈥渞esolutions鈥 which were reviewed by a panel of experts and young refugees. Here鈥檚 a and some of the thinking behind them.
Irrepressible comedian AK Dans was born in the world鈥檚 largest refugee camp,鈥 Kukuma, in Kenya, after his mother fled South Sudan in the 1990s.聽
This month, the turned 70 years old. For an organization that should have ceased to exist after three years, it is an uncomfortable birthday that it is not in the mood to celebrate. After WWII, UNHCR had the task of finding homes for Europe鈥檚 refugees. Brought into being on 1950, its mandate was time-limited and explicitly non-political, as if its existence was a reminder of miseries that were best swept away along with the rubble. Since, UNHCR has been called upon time and again to do whatever it can to protect vulnerable people uprooted from their homes.