Press Releases, 20 April 2016 On Tuesday, a UNHCR team interviewed survivors of what could be one of the worst tragedies involving refugees and migrants in the last 12 months. If confirmed, as many as 500 people may have lost their lives when a large ship went down in the Mediterranean Sea at an ...

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 1 July 2016, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. By: William Spindler | 1 July 2016 | A large-scale exercise to pre-register asylum seekers on mainl...

I have to pinch myself because I think I’m dreaming,” says pharmacist Mazen Al-Khatib Al-Masri, whose family is finally safe in Slovenia after fleeing the dangers of Damascus. He still remembers landing on an uninhabited Greek island and living “like Robinson Crusoe”. “There were just the dolphins ...

Ahead of a meeting of heads of state of government of the European Union (EU) with Turkey on 7 March in Brussels, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is today issuing recommendations aimed at helping States solve the refugee situation in Europe. The situation is quickly deteriorating with around 30,000 p...

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. By: William Spindler | 20 September 2016 On Monday evening, a fire broke out at the Moria reception centre on th...

"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, welcomes commitments made today at the Paris meeting on migration and asylum. I am encouraged by the announcement of a comprehensive plan of action that will support long-term solutions to the complex issue of mixed migration and help address its root causes, in clo...

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, called today for an additional 40,000 resettlement places to be made available for refugees located in 15 priority countries* along the Central Mediterranean route. “These 40,000 resettlement places, which will complement already existing commitments, will be crucial t...

Budapest – UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called on Hungary to improve access for people seeking asylum and to do away with its so-called border “transit zones,” which he said are in effect detention centres. In Budapest, he met Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó and In...

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Since last Friday, UNHCR teams in Libya have been responding to the urgent humanitarian needs in and around Sabratha, a ...

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling on the Government of Hungary to withdraw a package of laws set to be introduced in the Hungarian Parliament that would significantly restrict the ability of NGOs and individuals to support asylum-seekers and refugees. UNHCR is seriously concerned that these p...