Irish stories
Fair Play Football Cup kicks off World Refugee Day
19 June 2013
World Refugee Day was officially launched at the Fair Play Football Cup on Sunday, 16 June. The event, which was co-hosted by the UN Refugee Agency in Ireland (UNHCR) and Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI) is in its fourth year and brought together 160 participants from all over the country.
Global Forced Displacement at an 18-year high, Syria a major factor
19 June 2013
PRESS RELEASE
GLOBAL TRENDS REPORT
New UNHCR report says global forced displacement at an 18-year high
A report released today by UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, says that more people are refugees or internally displaced than at any time since 1994 , with the crisis in Syria having emerged as a major new factor in global displacement.
UNHCRs annual Global Trends report covers displacement that occurred during 2012 based on data from governments, NGO partners, and UNHCR itself. The report shows that as of the end of 2012, more than 45.2 million people were in situations of displacement compared to 42.5 million at the end of 2011. This includes 15.4 million refugees, 937,000 asylum seekers , and 28.8 million people forced to flee within the borders of their own countries.
War remains the dominant cause. A full 55 per cent of all refugees listed in UNHCR's report come from just five war-affected countries, namely Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan. The report also charts major new displacement from Mali, in Democratic Republic of the Congo, and from Sudan into South Sudan and Ethiopia.
These truly are alarming numbers. They reflect individual suffering on a huge scale and they reflect the difficulties of the international community in preventing conflicts and promoting timely solutions for them, said António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees and head of UNHCR.
The report highlights worrisome trends in several areas, one of which is the rate at which people are today being forced into situations of displacement. During 2012 some 7.6 million people became newly displaced, 1.1 million of them as refugees and 6.5 million as internally displaced people. This translates to a new refugee or internally displaced person every 4.1 seconds.
Also evident is a continuing gap between richer and poorer countries when it comes to who is hosting refugees. Of the 10.5 million refugees under UNHCR's mandate (a further 4.9 million Palestinian refugees fall under the mandate of our sister-agency, the UN Relief and Works Agency), half are being hosted by countries that have a per capita GDP of less than US$5,000. In all, developing countries host 81 per cent of the world's refugees compared to 70 per cent a decade ago.
Children below age 18 make up 46 per cent of all refugees. In addition, a record 21,300 asylum applications submitted during 2012 were from children who were unaccompanied or separated from their parents. This is the highest number of unaccompanied or separated children that UNHCR has recorded.
Global displacement for any year is the sum of new displacement, existing unresolved displacement, and resolved displacement (a minus figure) - for example, people returning home or being allowed to settle permanently outside their home country through citizenship or some other solution.
UNHCR works to help people who are forcibly displaced, including by providing aid and immediate practical help, and by finding solutions to their plight. The year 2012 saw an end to displacement for 2.7 million people, including 526,000 refugees and 2.1 million internally displaced people. Among those for whom solutions were found are 74,800 people submitted by UNHCR for resettlement in third countries.
Last year saw little change from 2011 in the rankings of the world's major refugee hosting countries. Pakistan continued to host more refugees than any other nation (1.6 million), followed by Iran (868,200) and Germany (589,700).
Afghanistan remained the world's top producer of refugees, a position it has held for 32 years. On average, one out of every four refugees worldwide is Afghan, with 95 per cent located in Pakistan or Iran. Somalia, another protracted conflict, was the world's second largest refugee producing nation during 2012, however there the rate of refugee outflow slowed. Iraqis were the third largest refugee group (746,700 persons), followed by Syrians (471,400).
With people displaced inside their own countries, the figure of 28.8 million for 2012 is the highest level in more than two decades. This includes 17.7 million who are being helped by the UN refugee agency. UNHCR assistance to IDPs is not automatic but occurs at the request of governments. Significant new internal displacement was seen in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria.
The Global Trends report is UNHCR's leading annual report on the state of forced displacement. Additional data is published annually in our Statistical Yearbooks, and in our reports on asylum applications in industrialized nations. The new report, with accompanying multimedia materials, can be downloaded by copying and pasting the following web address into your web browser: http://unhcr.org/globaltrendsjune2013
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Local Press Contact - Ireland:
Lorna Cronnelly
Snr. Communications/Public Information Associate.
Tel: 087 989 3461, Email: cronnell@unhcr.org
Geneva:
Adrian Edwards
Head of Media and Content
+41 79 557 9120 edwards@unhcr.org
i. Major displacement in 1994 included from the Great Lakes region of Africa, from the war in former Yugoslavia, from Somalia, Afghanistan, the Caucusus, and in Liberia and Sierra Leone. [Online: URL ]http://www.unhcr.org/3eeed3df4.html]
ii. The figure of 937,000 represents the number of asylum claims still under process at the end of 2012. The number of new asylum claims in 2012 was 893,700.
Source: IDMC
PRESS RELEASE
19 June 2013
‘Beyond Proof, Credibility Assessment in EU Asylum Systems’ - UNHCR Report Released
13 June 2013
The Report
The UNHCR report “Beyond Proof” provides unique insights into state practices based on research in three EU Member States, existing guidance from other states, training material including the European Asylum Curriculum (EAC), over 200 rulings by international, regional and national courts, and over 70 references to academic publications on the recent developments in international refugee law and disciplinary fields beyond (neurobiology, psychology, anthropology, cultural and gender studies) relevant to the credibility assessment in the asylum procedure.
The report is not an audit of the practices of the national asylum authorities in the three countries under study. Rather, the state practices observed during the research and evidenced through the jurisprudence are used as illustrations of the issues discussed in the report. These are relevant for and aim at informing the practice of all the asylum systems of the EU.
Fair Play Football Cup 2013
13 June 2013
PRESS RELEASE
11.06.13
World Feast of Soccer this Sunday to mark World Refugee Day 201
Refugees and Asylum Seekers from all over the world will join UNHCR and SARI to compete for the Fair Play Football Cup
This Sunday (June 16, 2013) over 160 people will participate in the fourth annual Fair Play Football Cup. Organised by the UN Refugee Agency in Ireland (UNHCR) and Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI) this will be the biggest ever Fair Play Football Cup, and will kick off events and activities around the world to mark World Refugee Day 2013 taking place on June 20.
Players will participate from government departments, media organisations and NGOs, while refugees and asylum seekers from Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Sudan, Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa, Afghanistan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Eritrea, Serbia and elsewhere will travel from all over Ireland to participate.
According to Sophie Magennis, Head of Office, UNHCR Ireland “this event brings together people from a range of backgrounds in a positive environment. World Refugee Day is just about that – we want to recognise the contribution made by refugees around the world to the communities where they have sought protection”.
This year will see increased participation from Direct Provision Centres where pre-Cup training has been taking place. Perry Ogden from SARI who is organising the centre trainings says “The enthusiasm for the Fair Play Football Cup is really gaining momentum. People in Direct Provision for a period of time really don’t have a lot of sporting options so we’re delighted to be able to work with them and get them involved in this great event”.
The theme for World Refugee Day 2013 is 1 family, and UNHCR is reminding people that 1 family torn apart by war is too many. Multiple refugee emergencies, particularly in the last 12 months, have caused record numbers of people to flee causing the separation of loved ones torn apart by the tragedy of conflict and persecution. Today Ireland is home to approximately 4,000 refugees and through family reunification the Irish Government assisted in reunifying 379 individuals with their families last year alone.
The Fair Play Football Cup will this year feature fun and entertainment for all the family and we are welcoming everyone to come join us on the day and mark World Refugee Day with your family to the Law Society Gardens, Blackhall Place, Dublin 7. Kick-off is at 11am with prize giving taking place at 4.30pm.
For more information, to organise interviews or images, please contact Lorna Cronnelly, Senior Communications and Public Information Associate, UNHCR Ireland: Email cronnell@unhcr.org; Tel: 087 989 3461
UNHCR Seeks Applications for full-time internship in the Communications and Public Information Unit
29 May 2013
UNHCR Ireland is seeking applications for a full-time six month internship in the Communications and Public Information Unit. The application deadline is Wednesday, June 19.
For a full description of this exciting opportunity please see our internship section.
UNHCR publishes a statistical overview of FGM and asylum in the EU
08 March 2013
UNHCR has published a study, entitled Too Much Pain: Female Genital Mutilation and Asylum in the European Union. Little is know about FGM in the EU in general, and it is hoped that this study will further encourage EU Member States to gather more systematic qualitative and quantitative data on this little-researched aspect of the asylum system.
UNHCR at the Informal Meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council
17 January 2013
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr António Guterres, made the following remarks at the Informal Meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Dublin on 17 January 2013:
Of all the terrible conflicts facing the world in 2013, Syria is undoubtedly the most complex and dangerous. Two years into the crisis, its humanitarian impact is enormous, in particular since fighting escalated during the summer of 2012.
In early April 2012, UNHCR had registered some 33,000 Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. As of yesterday, their number across the Middle East and North Africa stood just under 630,000 – nearly twenty times as high. Since the beginning of December, refugee arrivals have been averaging about 25,000 every week. Their number will keep on growing, and the bitter winter is only adding to the suffering.
UNHCR Seeks Input from Refugees in your Neighbourhood
11 January 2013
UNHCR is currently undertaking a research project and is looking for refugees from around the country to play an active role. We are hoping that people from all regions of Ireland will get involved and tell us about their experience of integrating into local communities.
UNHCR Makes Recommendations to Ireland for its EU Presidency
08 January 2013
UNHCR has published a set of recommendations to the Irish Government for consideration during its Presidency of the EU from January – June 2013. The paper highlights the need for ongoing European support to other regions, in light of the acute and continuing displacement crises in many parts of the world, and seeks to highlight that the EU plays a key role but can do more.
UNHCR Issues New Statelessness Guidelines
08 January 2013
UNHCR has published the first ever set of detailed Guidelines on interpretation and implementation of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The Guidelines, entitled Ensuring Every Child's Right to Acquire a Nationality through Articles 1-4 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, provide a solid basis for the implementation of a key aspect of UNHCR’s statelessness mandate: the prevention of statelessness among children.