June 20 is World Refugee Day. Two videos remind us about why the UN Refugee Agency is such a critical part of the international humanitarian system.
There is a steady stream of stories coming out today that suggest the that Italy-bound refugees from Libya are dying en masse at sea. According to UNHCR over 9,000 refugees have made the voyage from Libya to Italy or Malta. A not insignificant number have died along the way.
Right wing politicians and pundits like to rant about masses of asylum seekers straining rich countries' resources, but Western countries are seeing far fewer asylum applications than a decade ago.
Swedish authorities plan on deporting 25 Iraqi asylum seekers later today. This is despite the fact that the UN Refugee Agency has warned that asylum seekers originating from several provinces in Iraq should be granted refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention.
A video from the UN Refugee Agency that follows Somali refugees in neighboring Djbouti.
This is a pretty amazing mini-documentary from the UN refugee Agency about the experiences of a Darfuri migrant in Greece.
The UN High Commission on Refugees was created 60 years ago today to care for European refugees after World War Two. Today, it looks after 43 million people around the world.