Tag: UNHCR

Refugee-made products on display for first time ever at the world’s biggest trade fair

Stuart Mitchell

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is pleased to announce that for the first time ever refugee-made products will be on display at Ambiente, the leading international consumer goods trade show, from 9-13 February 2018, in Frankfurt, Germany. “Refugees have skills and talents that only need a chance to grow and flourish. Within each piece lies a story of history and culture, and the chance for a person who has fled war and persecution to offer something of beauty and style to the world,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo…

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Great British Welcome exhibition shows refugee-hosting as ‘win-win’

Stuart Mitchell

Great British Welcome, a series of photographs and texts portraying refugees and their hosts at home in Britain, will be on display at St Martin-the-Fields in London until mid March. The collection helps demonstrate that even as the numbers displaced by war and persecution have surged, Europeans have shown compassion, hope and humanity by opening their homes to refugees, helping to bridge cultural divides and break down language barriers. The show is the UK chapter of No Stranger Place, an exhibition of photographs and stories of refugees and hosts across…

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French pop artist Christine and the Queens calls for attention to forgotten Congo crisis

Stuart Mitchell

One of France’s biggest pop artists, Christine and the Queens, is calling for urgent attention and action for refugees fleeing violence in the Democratic of the Congo, as concern rises over the number of displaced people fleeing conflict and violence in the country. Travelling with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, Christine visited refugee settlements in neighbouring Uganda, where, during a trip earlier this month to the country’s southwest, she witnessed over 350 refugees arriving from the DRC in a single day, with numbers rising daily. Since 2012 some 236,500 Congolese…

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UN and partners launch plan to support five million Syrian refugees and countries hosting them

Stuart Mitchell

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Amin Awad – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at his press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The Syria crisis has been going on for seven years. 5.3 million people are displaced beyond Syria’s borders. Another seven million internally displaced people (IDPs) are displaced [inside Syria]. There is unprecedented destruction – over 500,000 people killed, towns decimated. More than 200 armed groups are fighting in the country. We know of the proxy war, we know…

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UNHCR Launches ‘ Nowhere People UK ’ Exhibition

Stuart Mitchell

In the first exhibition to document statelessness in the UK, artist Greg Constantine provides a glimpse into the hidden lives of these people living in the margins of society, denied basic rights that citizens take for granted. Among the exhibition’s ‘nowhere people’ is 27 year old Maya, who was one of tens of thousands of Kurdish children in Syria whose birth was unregistered by authorities. Her family was detained in the UK after their asylum claim was rejected, but Maya has since been granted British nationality. “Being stateless is not…

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