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106-683: UNHCR’s mandate is to provide protection and to find solutions for refugees , asylum seekers , stateless persons and other persons of concern. In support of this, UNHCR considers it a priority to promote and support access to education for refugees within national education systems and programmes at all levels, including higher education. One of the key objectives of UNHCR’s strategy is to “improve access to higher education opportunities for young people” by increasing access to higher education programmes at colleges, universities, and post-secondary technical, vocational and para-professional institutions, leading to certificates and diplomas. Higher education plays

212-611: A Prince of Asturias Awards for International Cooperation in 1991. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group , a consortium of organizations dedicated to sustainable development . Following the demise of the League of Nations and the creation of the United Nations the international community was acutely aware of the refugee crisis following the end of World War II . In 1947,

318-407: A particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it. In 1967 the definition

424-619: A 2021 study, the UNHCR has fulfilled its mandate to serve refugees independent of their location consistently over time. The organization has shown limited bias towards donors in the geographical distribution of its funds. UNHCR was established on 14 December 1950 and succeeded the earlier United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration . The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees (other than Palestinian refugees , who are assisted by UNRWA ) and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose

530-483: A Goodwill Ambassador, Angelina Jolie was promoted in 2012 to Special Envoy to the High Commissioner. In this role she represents the UNHCR and High Commissioner Filipo Grandi at the diplomatic level and works to facilitate long-term solutions for people displaced by large-scale crises, such as Afghanistan and Somalia. "This is an exceptional position reflecting an exceptional role she has played for us", said

636-731: A Repatriation Agreement with the USSR. The interpretation of this Agreement resulted in the forcible repatriation of all Soviets regardless of their wishes. When the war ended in May 1945, British and United States civilian authorities ordered their military forces in Europe to deport to the Soviet Union millions of former residents of the USSR, including many persons who had left Russia and established different citizenship decades before. The forced repatriation operations took place from 1945 to 1947. At

742-433: A UNHCR spokesman. UNHCR is also represented by a number of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassadors , who at present are: Previous ambassadors include: According to some scholars, with time UNHCR left an initial preference for asylum and resettlement policies, tending to prefer repatriation measures of refugees instead. Sometimes, this might have led the agency's bureaucratic apparatus to adopt pathological behaviours. An example of

848-407: A central role in protecting young refugees and preparing them and their communities for attaining sustainable solutions in a variety of situations of forced displacement worldwide. It also fosters skill development that contributes to post-conflict reconstruction, promotes social, economic and gender equality and empowers refugee communities. It nurtures a generation of future change-makers who can take

954-584: A commitment to supporting people and countries affected by conflict, and explicitly commits to education for refugees and internally displaced populations (IDPs), including access to tertiary education. More recently, the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants , adopted by all 193 Member States at the United Nations General Assembly on 19 September 2016, was a milestone in global solidarity with refugees and

1060-597: A database of refugee information, ProGres, which was created during the Kosovo War in the 1990s. The database today contains data on over 11 million refugees, or about 11% of all displaced persons globally. The database contains biometric data, including fingerprints and iris scans and is used to determine aid distribution for recipients. The results of using biometric verification have been successful. When introduced in Kenyan refugee camps of Kakuma and Dadaab in

1166-603: A high-level summit to address large movements of refugees and migrants, with the aim of bringing countries together behind a more humane and coordinated approach. Leaders of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights , UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women , UN Office on Drugs and Crime , and the World Bank were present. The summit addressed the root causes and drive for migration and

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1272-540: A joint livelihood strategy for South Sudan was launched, looking to address this issue with a clearly defined action plan. The strategy targets both refugees (70%) and local communities (30%) in refugee-hosting areas across the country. UNHCR regularly publishes to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) using the identifier XM-DAC-41121. Publication started in 2018, but data is available from 2016 onwards aligning to

1378-504: A long history: Ovid was sent to Tomis ; Voltaire was sent to England. By the 1648 Peace of Westphalia , nations recognized each other's sovereignty . However, it was not until the advent of romantic nationalism in late 18th-century Europe that nationalism gained sufficient prevalence for the phrase country of nationality to become practically meaningful, and for border crossing to require that people provide identification. The term "refugee" sometimes applies to people who might fit

1484-921: A new frontier between the Soviet Union and Poland approximately at the Curzon Line , despite the protestations from the Polish government-in-exile in London and the western Allies at the Teheran Conference and the Yalta Conference of February 1945. After the German surrender on 7 May 1945, the Allies occupied the remainder of Germany, and the Berlin declaration of 5 June 1945 confirmed the unfortunate division of Allied-occupied Germany according to

1590-420: A person may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by a contracting state or by the UNHCR if they formally make a claim for asylum . Internally Displaced People (IDPs) are often called refugees, but they are distinguished from refugees because they have not crossed an international border, although their reasons for leaving their home may be the same as those of refugees. In English,

1696-482: A person who sought sanctuary in a holy place could not be harmed without inviting divine retribution was familiar to the ancient Greeks and ancient Egyptians . However, the right to seek asylum in a church or other holy place was first codified in law by King Æthelberht of Kent in about AD 600. Similar laws were implemented throughout Europe in the Middle Ages . The related concept of political exile also has

1802-868: A process leading to the negotiation of the Global Compact for Migration . On 28 September 2016, the UNHCR partnered with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Tehran for the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees. FAO highlighted the contributions to be made by FAO towards SSAR objectives on livelihood related activities including livestock and fishery initiatives as well as nutritional projects in Iranian schools. FAO and UNHCR are committed to increasing refugees’ access to livelihood opportunities and reducing dependency on humanitarian aid. Of late,

1908-567: A refugee at this time was an individual with either a Nansen passport or a " certificate of identity " issued by the International Refugee Organization. The Constitution of the International Refugee Organization, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 15 December 1946, specified the agency's field of operations. Controversially, this defined "persons of German ethnic origin" who had been expelled, or were to be expelled from their countries of birth into

2014-647: A result of deportation policy of Armenia against ethnic Azerbaijanis. During the 1948 Palestine War , some 700,000 Palestinian Arabs or 85% of the Palestinian Arab population of territories that became Israel fled or were expelled from their homes by the Israelis. The International Refugee Organization (IRO) was founded on 20 April 1946, and took over the functions of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration , which

2120-528: A result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . These refugees are assisted by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). UNHCR also provides protection and assistance to other categories of displaced persons: asylum seekers, refugees who returned home voluntarily but still need help rebuilding their lives, local civilian communities directly affected by large refugee movements, stateless people and so-called internally displaced people (IDPs), as well as people in refugee-like and IDP-like situations. The agency

2226-456: A third country . It is headquartered in Geneva , Switzerland , and has 20,305 staff working in 136 countries as of December 2023. The office of High Commissioner for Refugees has existed since 1921, when it was created by the League of Nations with Norwegian scientist Dr. Fridtjof Nansen as its first occupant. The International Refugee Organization (IRO) was created in 1946 to address

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2332-634: Is a refugee. An article in the foreign press describes this: The agency defines Palestinian refugees as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” In 1965, UNRWA changed the eligibility requirements to be a Palestinian refugee to include third-generation descendants, and in 1982, it extended it again, to include all descendants of Palestine refugee males, including legally adopted children, regardless of whether they had been granted citizenship elsewhere. This classification process

2438-559: Is inconsistent with how all other refugees in the world are classified, including the definition used by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the laws concerning refugees in the United States. Refugee resettlement is defined as "an organized process of selection, transfer and arrival of individuals to another country. This definition is restrictive, as it does not account for

2544-573: Is inconsistent with how all other refugees in the world are classified, including the definition used by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the laws concerning refugees in the United States." United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 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

2650-427: Is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and to resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another state or territory and to offer "durable solutions" to refugees and refugee hosting countries. Unlike other refugee groups,

2756-438: Is sometimes included in this process, but the focus is generally on short‐term survival needs rather than long‐term career planning." Refugee integration means "a dynamic, long‐term process in which a newcomer becomes a full and equal participant in the receiving society... Compared to the general construct of settlement, refugee integration has a greater focus on social, cultural and structural dimensions. This process includes

2862-510: Is to provide, on a non-political and humanitarian basis, international protection to refugees and to seek permanent solutions for them. Soon after the signing of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees , it became clear that refugees were not solely restricted to Europe. In 1956, UNHCR was involved in coordinating the response to the uprising in Hungary . Just a year later, UNHCR

2968-489: Is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another state, with the option to return home voluntarily , integrate locally or to resettle in a third country . UNHCR's mandate has gradually been expanded to include protecting and providing humanitarian assistance to whom it describes as other persons "of concern", including internally displaced persons (IDPs) who would fit

3074-471: The 1951 Refugee Convention , is disputed. Additionally, academics have critiqued the lack of a theoretical basis of refugee studies and dominance of policy-oriented research. In response, scholars have attempted to steer the field toward establishing a theoretical groundwork of refugee studies through "situating studies of particular refugee (and other forced migrant) groups in the theories of cognate areas (and major disciplines), [providing] an opportunity to use

3180-644: The Allies of World War II created the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) to provide aid to areas liberated from Axis powers of World War II , including parts of Europe and China. By the end of the War, Europe had more than 40 million refugees. UNRRA was involved in returning over seven million refugees, then commonly referred to as displaced persons or DPs, to their country of origin and setting up displaced persons camps for one million refugees who refused to be repatriated. Even two years after

3286-654: The Gaza Strip and the West Bank , including East Jerusalem , are covered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Unlike UNHCR, UNRWA does not have a mandate to resettle Palestine refugees and has no authority to seek lasting durable solutions for refugees. Several new programs have recently been introduced to support and to heighten awareness of

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3392-577: The Grand Bargain (humanitarian reform) . The organisation was assessed by Publish What You Fund and included in the 2024 Aid Transparency Index with an overall score of 63.4 which is categorised as a "good" score. Since 1954, the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award has been annually awarded to a person or an organization in recognition of outstanding service to the cause of refugees, displaced or stateless people. The UNHCR itself

3498-762: The Hungarian Uprising to the decolonization of Africa and Asia , broadened the scope of UNHCR's operations. Commensurate with the 1967 Protocol to the Refugee Convention , which expanded the geographic and temporal scope of refugee assistance, UNHCR operated across the world, with the bulk of its activities in developing countries. By its 65th anniversary in 2015, the agency had assisted more than 50 million refugees worldwide. As of June 2020, UNHCR has over 20 million refugees under its mandate. Consequently, its annual budget has grown from US$ 300,000 in 1951 to US$ 8.6 billion in 2019, making it one of

3604-502: The International Refugee Organization (IRO) was founded by the United Nations. The IRO was the first international agency to deal comprehensively with all aspects of refugees' lives. Preceding this was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration , which was established in 1944 to address the millions of people displaced across Europe as a result of World War II. In the late 1940s,

3710-591: The League of Nations in 1921 from the Commission for Refugees. Following World War II and in response to the large numbers of people fleeing Eastern Europe , the United Nations passed the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees . It defines "refugee" in Article 1.A.2 as any person who: owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of

3816-607: The Reich Citizenship Law of 1935. On 4 July 1936 an agreement was signed under League auspices that defined a refugee coming from Germany as "any person who was settled in that country, who does not possess any nationality other than German nationality, and in respect of whom it is established that in law or in fact he or she does not enjoy the protection of the Government of the Reich" (article 1). The mandate of

3922-663: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) itself, in addition to the 1951 definition, recognizes the following persons as refugees: who are outside their country of nationality or habitual residence and unable to return there owing to serious and indiscriminate threats to life, physical integrity or freedom resulting from generalized violence or events seriously disturbing public order. The European Union passed minimum standards as part of its definition of refugee, underlined by article 2 (c) of Directive No. 2004/83/EC, essentially reproducing

4028-857: The first Edict of Fontainebleau in 1540. The word appeared in the English language when French Huguenots fled to Britain in large numbers after the 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau (the revocation of the 1598 Edict of Nantes ) in France and the 1687 Declaration of Indulgence in England and Scotland. The word meant "one seeking asylum", until around 1916, when it evolved to mean "one fleeing home", applied in this instance to civilians in Flanders heading west to escape fighting in World War I . The first modern definition of an international refugee status came with

4134-524: The "Executive Committee to the High Commissioner's Programme", and he or she has to make annual reports to the UN General Assembly and needs to follow their directives. The current High Commissioner is Filippo Grandi , who has held the post since 1 January 2016. Prior to the establishment of the UNHCR, Fridtjof Nansen was the League's High Commissioner for Refugees. The post of High Commissioner has been held by: After 10 years serving as

4240-560: The 1933 Refugee Convention, an early, and relatively modest, attempt at a human rights charter, and in general assisted around one million refugees worldwide. The rise of Nazism led to such a very large increase in the number of refugees from Germany that in 1933 the League created a high commission for refugees coming from Germany. Besides other measures by the Nazis which created fear and flight, Jews were stripped of German citizenship by

4346-486: The 1951 definition, which the Organization of African Unity adopted in 1969: Every person who, owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of his country of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his country of origin or nationality. The 1984

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4452-928: The British authorities closed that destination in 1939. On 31 December 1938 both the Nansen Office and High Commission were dissolved and replaced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees under the Protection of the League. This coincided with the flight of 500,000 Spanish Republicans, soldiers as well as civilians, to France after their defeat by the Nationalists in 1939 in the Spanish Civil War . The conflict and political instability during World War II led to massive numbers of refugees (see World War II evacuation and expulsion ). In 1943,

4558-522: The Communist government. It is estimated that about 800,000 Russian refugees became stateless when Lenin revoked citizenship for all Russian expatriates in 1921. In 1923, the mandate of the commission was expanded to include the more than one million Armenians who left Turkish Asia Minor in 1915 and 1923 due to a series of events now known as the Armenian genocide . Over the next several years,

4664-473: The Congo, Sudan. Refugee A refugee , according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as a result of who they are, what they believe in or say, or because of armed conflict, violence or serious public disorder." Such

4770-979: The DAFI programme is partly based on the thorough selection process which not only takes high academic achievement into account, but also considers vulnerability criteria, the students’ motivation and their community engagement. This process ensures a diverse, inclusive and highly motivated group of DAFI scholars. The strategic priorities of the DAFI programme are to: Number of students: 2,321 students - 42% female, 58% male Countries of study: DAFI students enrolled in 40 countries. Countries of origin: Refugees on DAFI scholarships originate from 33 countries. Main study subjects: Commerce & Business Administration, Medicine & Health-Related, Social & Behavioural Science, Engineering, Education Science & Teacher Training. Top 5 countries of study: Ethiopia, Islamic republic of Iran, Uganda, Kenya, Pakistan. Top 5 countries of origin: Afghanistan, Somalia, Syrian Arab Republic, DR of

4876-738: The High Commission was subsequently expanded to include persons from Austria and Sudetenland , which Germany annexed after 1 October 1938 in accordance with the Munich Agreement . According to the Institute for Refugee Assistance, the actual count of refugees from Czechoslovakia on 1 March 1939 stood at almost 150,000. Between 1933 and 1939, about 200,000 Jews fleeing Nazism were able to find refuge in France, while at least 55,000 Jews were able to find refuge in Palestine before

4982-690: The IRO fell out of favour, but the UN agreed that a body was required to oversee global refugee issues. Despite many heated debates in the General Assembly, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was founded as a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly by Resolution 319 (IV) of the United Nations General Assembly of December 1949. However, the organisation was only intended to operate for 3 years, from January 1951, due to

5088-425: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established on 14 December 1950. It protects and supports refugees at the request of a government or the United Nations and assists in providing durable solutions, such as return or resettlement . All refugees in the world are under UNHCR mandate except Palestinian refugees , who fled the current state of Israel between 1947 and 1949, as

5194-619: The Polish western border as that of 1937, placing one fourth of Germany's territory under the Provisional Polish administration . Article XII ordered that the remaining German populations in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary be transferred west in an "orderly and humane" manner. Although not approved by Allies at Potsdam, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans living in Yugoslavia and Romania were deported to slave labour in

5300-631: The Soviet Union, to Allied-occupied Germany , and subsequently to the German Democratic Republic ( East Germany ), Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany ( West Germany ). This entailed the largest population transfer in history. In all 15 million Germans were affected, and more than two million perished during the expulsions of the German population . (See Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950) .) Between

5406-550: The Status of Refugees was ratified to remove the geographical and temporal restrictions of UNHCR under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. As the Convention was confined to the refugee crisis in the aftermath of World War II in Europe, the Protocol was made to address the "new refugee situations that have arisen since the Convention was adopted and the refugees concerned that may therefore not fall within

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5512-550: The U.N. for placement, and an asylum seeker applies within the Country in which asylum is sought. This is why some Countries label refugees as illegal when they did not apply through the U.N. for placement and entered the country unlawfully. In 2007, UNHCR offices in Canada launched an aggressive media campaign to shed light on the plight of refugees. This campaign was meant to humanize the refugee crisis by showing refugees living in

5618-617: The U.N., improperly search for asylum in the United States, ultimately failing to reach their destination and remaining in the Caribbean. However, migrant laws in some of these nations lacked any protections for asylum seekers , including the ability to be recognized as such. In response, the UNHCR organized talks with these nations in Costa Rica in 2009, seeking to address the lack of protections for refugees and their prosecution as unauthorized migrants. A refugee seeker applies through

5724-554: The UN created a specific entity called the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the aftermath of the war in 1948, which led to a serious refugee crisis in the Arab region, and was responsible for the displacement of 700,000 Palestinian refugees. This number has gone up to at least 5 million refugees in the last 70 years. The United Nations defines Palestinian refugees as "persons whose normal place of residence

5830-564: The Yalta Conference, which stipulated the continued existence of the German Reich as a whole, which would include its eastern territories as of 31 December 1937. This did not impact on Poland's eastern border, and Stalin refused to be removed from these eastern Polish territories . In the last months of World War II, about five million German civilians from the German provinces of East Prussia , Pomerania and Silesia fled

5936-570: The acquisition of legal rights, mastering the language and culture, reaching safety and stability, developing social connections and establishing the means and markers of integration, such as employment, housing and health." Refugee workforce integration is understood to be "a process in which refugees engage in economic activities (employment or self‐employment) which are commensurate with individuals' professional goals and previous qualifications and experience, and provide adequate economic security and prospects for career advancement." The idea that

6042-428: The advance of the Red Army from the east and became refugees in Mecklenburg , Brandenburg and Saxony . Since the spring of 1945, the Poles had been forcefully expelling the remaining German population in these provinces. When the Allies met in Potsdam on 17 July 1945 at the Potsdam Conference , a chaotic refugee situation faced the occupying powers. The Potsdam Agreement , Article VIII signed on 2 August 1945, defined

6148-450: The aim of informing people about current refugee crises. One of these is the annual UNHCR/SARI Fair play Football Cup. The UNHCR was prominent in helping Syrian refugees in Lebanon. When the Lebanese government was unable to withstand the influx of refugees, the UNHCR stepped in and eased the displacement for the refugees mainly by offering food and healthcare. They also helped register the refugees, so they would not be considered illegal in

6254-403: The commission. Its most notable achievement was the Nansen passport , a refugee travel document , for which it was awarded the 1938 Nobel Peace Prize . The Nansen Office was plagued by problems of financing, an increase in refugee numbers, and a lack of co-operation from some member states, which led to mixed success overall. However, the Nansen Office managed to lead fourteen nations to ratify

6360-434: The concerned countries, durable solutions continued to prove a massive challenge for the UNHCR. As a result, the UNHCR became more heavily involved with assistance programs within refugee camps, often located in hostile environments. The end of the Cold War marked continued inter-ethnic conflict and contributed heavily to refugee flight. In addition, humanitarian intervention by multinational forces became more frequent, and

6466-401: The country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s. Most European refugees (principally Jews and Slavs) fleeing the Nazis and the Soviet Union were barred from going to the United States until after World War II, when Congress enacted the temporary Displaced Persons Act in 1948. In 1930, the Nansen International Office for Refugees (Nansen Office) was established as a successor agency to

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6572-496: The definition outlined by the 1951 Convention, were it applied retroactively. There are many candidates. For example, after the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685 outlawed Protestantism in France, hundreds of thousands of Huguenots fled to England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, South Africa , Germany and Prussia . The repeated waves of pogroms that swept Eastern Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries prompted mass Jewish emigration (more than 2 million Russian Jews emigrated in

6678-401: The disagreement of many UN member states over the implications of a permanent body. UNHCR's mandate was originally set out in its statute, annexed to resolution 428 (V) of the United Nations General Assembly of 1950. This mandate has been subsequently broadened by numerous resolutions of the General Assembly and its Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). According to UNHCR, its mandate

6784-409: The end of War and the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961, more than 563,700 refugees from East Germany traveled to West Germany for asylum from the Soviet occupation . During the same period, millions of former Russian citizens were forcefully repatriated against their will into the USSR. On 11 February 1945, at the conclusion of the Yalta Conference , the United States and United Kingdom signed

6890-413: The end of War, some 850,000 people still lived in DP camps across Western Europe. After the establishment of Israel in 1948, Israel accepted more than 650,000 Jewish refugees by 1950. By 1953, over 250,000 refugees were still in Europe, most of them old, infirm, crippled, or otherwise disabled. After the Soviet armed forces captured eastern Poland from the Germans in 1944, the Soviets unilaterally declared

6996-439: The end of World War II, there were more than 5 million "displaced persons" from the Soviet Union in Western Europe . About 3 million had been forced laborers ( Ostarbeiters ) in Germany and occupied territories. The Soviet POWs and the Vlasov men were put under the jurisdiction of SMERSH (Death to Spies). Of the 5.7 million Soviet prisoners of war captured by the Germans, 3.5 million had died while in German captivity by

7102-402: The end of the war. The survivors on their return to the USSR were treated as traitors (see Order No. 270 ). Over 1.5 million surviving Red Army soldiers imprisoned by the Nazis were sent to the Gulag . Poland and Soviet Ukraine conducted population exchanges following the imposition of a new Poland-Soviet border at the Curzon Line in 1944. About 2,100,000 Poles were expelled west of

7208-412: The eyes of the Lebanese government. Many Syrian refugees are also in Jordan. As UNHCR is a programme governed by the UN General Assembly and the UN Economic and Social Council , it cooperates with many other programs and agencies under the United Nations in order to effectively protect the rights of refugees. On 19 September 2016, the UN General Assembly hosted the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants,

7314-531: The following areas in the field of higher education: The DAFI programme provides scholarships to refugees in their first country of asylum over a period of 4 years. The awards cover a wide range of costs from tuition fees and study materials to food, transport, accommodation and other allowances. Close monitoring, academic preparatory and language classes based on students’ needs, as well as activities encouraging peer support, are among examples of further resources available to DAFI students. The quality and success of

7420-419: The increasing prevalence of unmanaged migration processes." The term refugee relocation refers to "a non‐organized process of individual transfer to another country." Refugee settlement refers to "the process of basic adjustment to life ‒ often in the early stages of transition to the new country ‒ including securing access to housing, education, healthcare, documentation and legal rights [and] employment

7526-505: The issues faced by refugees around the world. These two new programs are a product of the benchmarks set out by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals . The UNHCR works in different regions of the world to raise awareness about the refugee crisis and the needs of these refugees. Since 2009, the UNHCR acknowledged a large presence of migration and refugees in the Caribbean , where the refugee crisis remained largely unreported. The issue stems from refugees who, instead of applying to

7632-591: The largest UN agencies by expenditure. The vast majority of UNHCR's budget comes from voluntary contributions, mostly from member states; the largest donors are the United States, the European Union, and Germany. The agency's work includes providing protection , shelter, healthcare and emergency relief , assisting in resettlement and repatriation, and advocating for national and multilateral policies on behalf of refugees. In recognition of its work, UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes , in 1954 and 1981, and

7738-582: The latter, according to Barnett and Finnemore, was the handling of the 1995 Rohingyan crisis. At the time, thousands of Rohingyans were fleeing Burma (or Myanmar ), seeking shelter in UNHCR camps in Bangladesh. According to some, UNHCR has been decisive in promoting the repatriation of refugees, although Non-Governmental Organizations on the field and the UN were skeptical about better political and security conditions in Burma. Also, controversies arose on

7844-427: The lead in identifying and accessing solutions for refugees. Education provides young refugees and their families with an opportunity for increased self-reliance through the acquisition of knowledge and skills and subsequently to gainful employment. The hope of participation in higher education contributes to greater enrolment and retention throughout primary and secondary school, reinforcing the protection of children and

7950-596: The legal definition of a refugee under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and 1967 Protocol, the 1969 Organization for African Unity Convention , or some other treaty if they left their country, but who presently remain in their country of origin. UNHCR presently has major missions in Lebanon , South Sudan , Chad / Darfur , Democratic Republic of Congo , Iraq , Afghanistan , and Kenya to assist and provide services to IDPs and refugees in camps and in urban settings . UNHCR maintains

8056-620: The mainly developing countries hosting them. In particular, the New York declaration and the establishment of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) has given the global community a further opportunity to positively impact refugee protection and solutions, and to focus on the important role that education plays through an inclusive and partnership approach. In advancing pathways to durable solutions for refugees, UNHCR and its partners focus on

8162-593: The mandate was expanded further to cover Assyrians and Turkish refugees. In all of these cases, a refugee was defined as a person in a group for which the League of Nations had approved a mandate, as opposed to a person to whom a general definition applied. The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey involved about two million people (around 1.5 million Anatolian Greeks and 500,000 Muslims in Greece) most of whom were forcibly repatriated and denaturalized from homelands of centuries or millennia (and guaranteed

8268-535: The media began to play a big role, particularly in the lead up to the 1999 NATO mission in FR Yugoslavia , while by contrast, the 1994 Rwandan Genocide had little attention. The genocide in Rwanda caused a massive refugee crisis, again highlighting the difficulties for UNHCR to uphold its mandate, and the UNHCR continued to battle against restrictive refugee policies in so-called "rich" nations. According to

8374-548: The methods with which the UNHCR staff was conducting surveys in the camps to establish whether refugees were willing to move back to Burma or not. A paper published in the International Migration review puts forward the point that since the organization’s creation in 1951, overlapping and competing organizations have been created. The paper highlights that this creates opportunities in the form of inter-organization cooperation, but also challenges in that most of

8480-564: The midst of disturbing conditions. Using emotional appeals to raise public awareness, the campaign hoped to increase the interest of particularly "30 to 45-year-old professionals who are generally well educated, well-read, but have not had direct experience or knowledge of refugee issues", according to fund-raising officer Jonathan Wade. In Ireland, the UNHCR works to inform the public through different channels. The UNHCR in Ireland actively pursues media relations. It also holds public events with

8586-574: The narrow definition of refugee offered by the UN 1951 Convention. Nevertheless, by virtue of articles 2 (e) and 15 of the same Directive, persons who have fled a war-caused generalized violence are, at certain conditions, eligible for a complementary form of protection, called subsidiary protection . The same form of protection is foreseen for displaced people who, without being refugees, are nevertheless exposed, if returned to their countries of origin, to death penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatments. UNRWA has an alternate definition of what

8692-661: The nationality of the destination country) by a treaty promoted and overseen by the international community as part of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) . The U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act in 1921, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924 . The Immigration Act of 1924 was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans, especially Jews , Italians and Slavs , who had begun to enter

8798-785: The necessity of global cooperation. As a result of this summit, the United Nations unveiled a draft set of principles that urge the international community to build on the momentum set by the adoption of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (2016). Specifically, the 20 draft principles focus on human rights; non-discrimination; rescue and assistance; access to justice; border governance; returns; violence; detention; family unity; child migrants; women migrants; right to health ; adequate standard of living; decent work; right to education; right to information; monitoring and accountability; migrants’ human rights defenders; data; and international cooperation. The declaration set off

8904-592: The new border (see Repatriation of Poles ), while about 450,000 Ukrainians were expelled to the east of the new border. The population transfer to Soviet Ukraine occurred from September 1944 to May 1946 (see Repatriation of Ukrainians ). A further 200,000 Ukrainians left southeast Poland more or less voluntarily between 1944 and 1945. According to the report of the U.S. Committee for Refugees (1995), 10 to 15 percent of 7.5 million Azerbaijani population were refugees or displaced people. Most of them were 228,840 refugee people of Azerbaijan who fled from Armenia in 1988 as

9010-632: The number in 2015 – fell under the mandate of the UNHCR). The sharp increase was mainly attributed to the Syrian Civil War , "with the outbreak of armed crises or the deterioration of ongoing ones in countries like Afghanistan , Burundi , Democratic Republic of the Congo , Mali , Somalia , South Sudan and the Ukraine contributing to prevailing trends". 2023's Global Trends report states that 43.4 million refugees fell under

9116-444: The organization's mandate, with 73 percent of refugees originating from just five countries: Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Ukraine, and Venezuela. Prior data on forced migration organized by georegion included a report by the organization in 2015. It lists: As of 2023 , the UNHCR has employed more than 18,879 staff in 138 countries. The UN General Assembly elects High Commissioners every five years. High Commissioners are supported by

9222-481: The particular circumstances of refugee situations to illuminate these more general theories and thus participate in the development of social science, rather than leading refugee studies into an intellectual cul-de-sac." Thus, the term refugee in the context of refugee studies can be referred to as "legal or descriptive rubric", encompassing socioeconomic backgrounds, personal histories, psychological analyses, and spiritualities. Headquartered in Geneva , Switzerland,

9328-758: The period 1881–1920). Between the Crimean War of 1853–56 and World War I, at least 2.5 million Muslims arrived in the Ottoman Empire as refugees, primarily from Russia and the Balkans. The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 caused 800,000 people to leave their homes. Various groups of people were officially designated refugees beginning in World War I. However, when the First World War began, there were no rules in international law specifically dealing with

9434-551: The postwar Germany, as individuals who would "not be the concern of the Organization." This excluded from its purview a group that exceeded in number all the other European displaced persons put together. Also, because of disagreements between the Western allies and the Soviet Union, the IRO only worked in areas controlled by Western armies of occupation. With the occurrence of major instances of diaspora and forced migration ,

9540-470: The present. Most notably in 1988, the Journal of Refugee Studies was established as the field's first major interdisciplinary journal. The emergence of refugee studies as a distinct field of study has been criticized by scholars due to terminological difficulty. Since no universally accepted definition for the term "refugee" exists, the academic respectability of the policy-based definition, as outlined in

9646-519: The refugee crises in Europe, there were no durable solutions in Africa, and many refugees who fled one country only found instability in their new country of refuge. By the end of the decade, two-thirds of UNHCR's budget was focused on operations in Africa, and in just one decade, the organization's focus had shifted from an almost exclusive focus on Europe. In 1967, the Protocol Relating to

9752-412: The refugee crisis that resulted from World War II . The United Nations established the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1950 as the successor of the IRO. The 1951 Refugee Convention established the scope and legal framework of the agency's work, which initially focused on Europeans uprooted by the war. Beginning in the late 1950s, displacement caused by other conflicts, from

9858-401: The regional, non-binding Latin-American Cartagena Declaration on Refugees included the following definition of refugees: persons who have fled their country because their lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order. As of 2011

9964-516: The scope of the Convention". In the 1970s, UNHCR refugee operations continued to spread around the globe, with the mass exodus of East Pakistanis to India shortly before the birth of Bangladesh . Adding to the woes in Asia was the Vietnam War , with millions fleeing Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The 1980s saw new challenges for UNHCR, with many member states unwilling to resettle refugees due to

10070-473: The sharp rise in refugee numbers over the 1970s. Often, these refugees were not fleeing wars between states, but inter-ethnic conflict in newly independent states. The targeting of civilians as military strategy added to the displacement in many nations, so even "minor" conflicts could result in a large number of displaced persons. Whether in Asia, Central America or Africa, these conflicts, fueled by superpower rivalry and aggravated by socio-economic problems within

10176-511: The situation of refugees. The first international co-ordination of refugee affairs came with the creation by the League of Nations in 1921 of the High Commission for Refugees and the appointment of Fridtjof Nansen as its head. Nansen and the commission were charged with assisting the approximately 1,500,000 people who fled the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent civil war (1917–1921), most of them aristocrats fleeing

10282-601: The study of their causes and implications has emerged as a legitimate interdisciplinary area of research, and began to rise by mid to late 20th century, after World War II . Although significant contributions had been made before, the latter half of the 20th century saw the establishment of institutions dedicated to the study of refugees, such as the Association for the Study of the World Refugee Problem, which

10388-406: The term refugee derives from the root word refuge , from Old French refuge , meaning "hiding place". It refers to "shelter or protection from danger or distress", from Latin fugere , "to flee", and refugium , "a taking [of] refuge, place to flee back to". In Western history, the term was first applied to French Protestant Huguenots looking for a safe place against Catholic persecution after

10494-584: The well-being of refugee and host communities. However, globally only less than 1% of eligible refugees have access to tertiary education, compared to 34% worldwide. Recent changes in the global policy environment for education in emergencies and crises has seen important advances. In 2015, States committed to the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4), aiming to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The SDG4 agenda articulates

10600-478: The year 2013, the UN World Food Programme was able to eliminate $ 1.4M in waste and fraud. To achieve its mandate, the UNHCR engages in activities both in the countries of interest and in countries with donors. This includes hosting "expert roundtables" to discuss issues of concern to the international refugee community. Palestinian refugees living in the areas of Jordan , Lebanon , Syria ,

10706-624: Was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict." The population of Palestinian refugees continues to grow due to multiple UNRWA reclassifications of what is considered to be a refugee. "In 1965, UNRWA changed the eligibility requirements to be a Palestinian refugee to include third-generation descendants, and in 1982, it extended it again, to include all descendants of Palestine refugee males, including legally adopted children, regardless of whether they had been granted citizenship elsewhere. This classification process

10812-872: Was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981. The UNHCR was awarded the Indira Gandhi Prize in 2015. In 1991 was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation . Persons of concern include refugees and asylum seekers, people in refugee-like conditions, internally displaced people (IDPs), stateless persons and "others of concern to the UNHCR". The UNHCR's Mid-Year Trends report of June 2015 (based on information for mid-2015 or latest available information up to that date) reported an "unprecedented" 57,959,702 individuals falling under its mandate (for reference, on 1 January 2007, 21,018,589 people – or less than half of

10918-537: Was basically confirmed by the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees . People fleeing from war , natural disasters , or poverty are generally not encompassed by the international right of asylum . However, many countries have implemented laws to protect also those Displaced Persons . Accordingly, the Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa expanded

11024-551: Was closely followed by the founding of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees . In particular, the 1981 volume of the International Migration Review defined refugee studies as "a comprehensive, historical, interdisciplinary and comparative perspective which focuses on the consistencies and patterns in the refugee experience." Following its publishing, the field saw a rapid increase in academic interest and scholarly inquiry, which has continued to

11130-516: Was shut down in 1947. While the handover was originally planned to take place at the beginning of 1947, it did not occur until July 1947. The International Refugee Organization was a temporary organization of the United Nations (UN), which itself had been founded in 1945, with a mandate to largely finish the UNRRA's work of repatriating or resettling European refugees. It was dissolved in 1952 after resettling about one million refugees. The definition of

11236-504: Was tasked with dealing with Chinese refugees in Hong Kong , while also responding to Algerian refugees who had fled to Morocco and Tunisia in the wake of Algeria 's war for independence. The responses marked the beginning of a wider, global mandate in refugee protection and humanitarian assistance . Decolonisation in the 1960s triggered large refugee movements in Africa, creating a massive challenge that would transform UNHCR; unlike

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