In a press release UNHCR warns that the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is driving further violence against refugee, displaced and stateless women and girls. The UNHCR-led Global Protection Cluster reported increases in gender-based violence in at least 27 countries. UNHCR is also alarmed by increased risks of child and forced marriages being resorted to as a coping strategy by displaced families buckling under socio-economic pressures.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UNHCR has helped hundreds of refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) to return home in recent days – the first such move since the COVID-19 pandemic forced border closures.

During the opening of a virtual session of UNHCR’s annual High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection challenges, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs, underlined the importance of inclusion for the protection of refugees and their hosts in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As countries all over the world battle a second wave of the pandemic, UNHCR is highlighting with a new data visualization tool how acutely vulnerable forcibly displaced populations must contend with extreme overcrowding and limited access to basics such as soap and water. [Link to the data visualization tool: https://arcg.is/ObLOL]

In a press release on the eve of the donor conference for Rohingya refugees, UNHCR called for solidarity, support and solutions for this stateless and displaced population as the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has added layers of new challenges and needs to an already complex and massive refugee emergency.

After a seven-month suspension due to COVID-19, UNHCR's life-saving flights from Libya have resumed. A group of 153 vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers have been evacuated from Libya to the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) in Niger.

In a key annual address to UNHCR’s annual Executive Committee meeting in Geneva, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs, warned that COVID-19 is severely testing refugee protection.

During UNHCR’s annual Executive Committee, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, highlighted that maintaining levels of humanitarian aid is a comparatively inexpensive way to save lives and protect refugees and their host communities facing a “pandemic of poverty” resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of the annual NGO consultations, UNHCR and some 100 NGOs called on global leaders to ensure that refugees are included in social safety nets and support services for COVID-19 and stressed the need for stronger integration of refugees and refugee-led organisations, their skills and knowledge, in humanitarian responses.

In a press release, UNHCR urged more support for refugee higher education to withstand the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. UNHCR published its annual DAFI report on 28 September highlighting data on refugee tertiary enrolment.