The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with over 18,879 staff working in 138 countries as of 2020.
An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced people. Usually, refugees seek asylum after they have escaped war in their home countries, but some camps also house environmental and economic migrants. Camps with over a hundred thousand people are common, but as of 2012, the average-sized camp housed around 11,400. They are usually built and run by a government, the United Nations, international organizations, or non-governmental organization. Unofficial refugee camps, such as Idomeni in Greece or the Calais jungle in France, are where refugees are largely left without the support of governments or international organizations.
Kakuma is a town in northwestern Turkana County, Kenya. It is the site of a UNHCR refugee camp, established in 1992. The population of Kakuma town was 60,000 in 2014, having grown from around 8,000 in 1990. In 1991, the camp was established to host unaccompanied minors who had fled the war in Sudan, Somalia and from camps in Ethiopia. It was estimated that there were 12,000 "lost boys and girls" who had fled here via Egypt in 1990/91.
Dadaab is a semi-arid town in Garissa County, Kenya. It is the site of a UNHCR base hosting 302,805 registered refugees and asylum seekers as of 31 October 2023, in four camps, making it one of the largest in the world behind Kutupalong refugee camp. The centre is run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and its operations are financed by foreign donors. In 2013, UNHCR, the governments of Kenya and Somalia signed a tripartite agreement facilitating the repatriation of Somali refugees at the complex.
The Great Lakes refugee crisis is the common name for the situation beginning with the exodus in April 1994 of over two million Rwandans to neighboring countries of the Great Lakes region of Africa in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. Many of the refugees were Hutu fleeing the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which had gained control of the country at the end of the genocide. However, the humanitarian relief effort was vastly compromised by the presence among the refugees of many of the Interahamwe and government officials who carried out the genocide, who used the refugee camps as bases to launch attacks against the new government led by Paul Kagame. The camps in Zaire became particularly politicized and militarized. The knowledge that humanitarian aid was being diverted to further the aims of the genocidaires led many humanitarian organizations to withdraw their assistance. The conflict escalated until the start of the First Congo War in 1996, when RPF-supported rebels invaded Zaire and sought to repatriate the refugees.
Mporokoso is a town in the Northern Province of Zambia, lying at an elevation of nearly 1500 m on the flat plateau about 75 km south east of Lake Mweru Wantipa and 100 km south-west of Lake Tanganyika. It is named for Chief Mporokoso a senior chief of the Bemba people whose palace is located at Chishamwamba close to the town. Mporokoso District is also one of the 12 administrative districts of the Northern Province.
Buduburam is a refugee camp located 44 kilometers (27 mi) west of Accra, Ghana. It is along the Accra-Cape Coast Highway. Opened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1990, the camp is home to more than 12,000 refugees from Liberia who fled their country during the First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996) and the Second Liberian Civil War (1999–2003). The camp is served by Liberian and international NGO groups and volunteer organizations. The Carolyn A. Miller Elementary School provides free education to nearly 500 children in the camp.
The Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative Fund scholarship programme offers refugee students the possibility to pursue an undergraduate degree in their country of asylum. Through the dedicated support of the German Government, and additional private donors, UNHCR was able to support over 9,300 young refugees since 1992.
The International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) is an international organization that serves and protects uprooted people, including migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people, regardless of faith, race, ethnicity or nationality. With staff and programs in over 40 countries, ICMC advocates for sustainable solutions and rights-based policies directly and through a worldwide network of 132 member organizations.
Bruno Geddo is an Italian national, born in Novara in 1959. He has served with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for over 30 years in Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East.
Africa Humanitarian Action (AHA) is a non-governmental organization that provides relief services to countries in Africa. It was founded by Dr. David Zawde in 1994 in response to the Rwandan genocide.
Moba Territory is a territory in the Tanganyika Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The administrative center is Moba port. The territory has an estimated area of 24,500 square kilometres (9,500 sq mi) and a population of almost 610,000.
Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement is a refugee camp in Kamwenge District in southwestern Uganda and is home to nearly 70,000 refugees.
The Foundation Sheikh Thani Ibn Abdullah for Humanitarian Services, abbreviated as RAF (راف) is a Qatari foundation established by the al-Thani family.
Third country resettlement or refugee resettlement is, according to the UNHCR, one of three durable solutions for refugees who fled their home country. Resettled refugees have the right to reside long-term or permanently in the country of resettlement and may also have the right to become citizens of that country.
Nakivale refugee settlement is a settlement located in Isingiro District near the Tanzania border in Southwest Uganda.
Kyangwali Refugee Settlement is a refugee camp in the Kibuube District in western Uganda. April 2024, Kyangwali is home to 137,183 Refugees.
The Partnership for Refugees is a refugee public-private partnership established in June 2016 as the Partnership for Refugees by the Obama administration to facilitate President Barack Obama's commitment to creative solutions for the refugee crisis by engaging the private sector. The Partnership, an initiative established through collaboration between the State Department and USA for UNHCR with significant support from Accenture Federal Services, was established to facilitate private sector commitments in response to President Obama's June 30, 2016 Call to Action for Private Sector Engagement on the Global Refugee Crisis. On September 20, 2016, at the Leaders Summit on Refugees at the United Nations, President Obama announced that 51 companies from across the American economy have pledged to make new, measurable and significant commitments that will have a durable impact on refugees residing in countries on the front lines of the global refugee crisis and in countries of resettlement, like the United States.
Dorothy (Ng’ambi) Tembo is a Zambian economist and trade and development expert. She is the deputy executive director of the International Trade Centre (ITC), a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.
