In 2020, 39.4 million persons of concern received COVID-19 assistance including access to protection services, shelter, health, and education. This includes over 8.5 million individuals who received cash assistance.

UNHCR and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 03 February 2020, with the overall goal of ensuring refugees and other forcibly displaced can access vaccines on par with nationals. The MoU also looks at expanding coverage and quality of immunization services, promoting equity in access and uptake of vaccines, and strengthening health systems at community and primary care level.

Despite an estimated 1.44 million refugees in urgent need of resettlement globally, less than 23,000 were resettled through UNHCR last year. These are the lowest refugee resettlement numbers UNHCR has witnessed in almost two decades. The drop stems from low quotas put forward by states, as well as the impact of COVID-19, which delayed departures and programmes.

On 14 January 2021, Jordan has become one of the world’s first countries to start COVID-19 vaccinations for refugees, and UNHCR has been working with the Jordanian government to vaccinate refugees and provide critical health, sanitation, hygiene and logistical support as well as personal protective equipment. UNHCR appeals to all countries to follow suit and include refugees in their national vaccination drives in line with COVAX allocation principles.

In 2021, UNHCR will work to maintain the same levels of responsiveness, adaptability and flexibility in response to COVID-19, whilst strengthening resilience as staff and people of concern adjust to living and working with COVID-19 in the medium term. UNHCR published a supplementary appeal to respond to these needs.

In a recently published study, the World Bank and UNHCR estimate that 4.4 million people in host communities and 1.1 million refugees or internally displaced persons in Lebanon, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and three governorates in Jordan have been newly pushed into poverty by the pandemic.

In a joint press release, IOM and UNHCR chiefs stressed that COVID-19 underlines the urgent need for universal health coverage that includes migrants, refugees and internally displaced and stateless people.

UNHCR and IOM jointly launched a USD 1.44 billion regional plan to respond to the growing needs of refugees and migrants from Venezuela and the communities hosting them. The onset of COVID-19 has dangerously strained national and local capacities across the region. Many refugees and migrants and their host communities now face a myriad of new challenges that worsen their already precarious conditions.

UNHCR warns that child trafficking, forced labour and forced recruitment by armed groups are increasing in Mali due to conflict, insecurity, COVID-19 and deteriorating economic conditions.

A new report released by the Norwegian Refugee Council and UNHCR-led Global Protection Cluster (GPC) finds that nearly 40 million people are at heightened risk of violence, discrimination and rights abuses as COVID-19 spawns a ‘coping crisis’.