This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 24 January 2012, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. UNHCR is very concerned at reports this week of two suspected poliomyelitis cases among Somali refugee...

JIJIGA, Ethiopia, April 10 (UNHCR) – Chinese actress Yao Chen has concluded her first visit to Africa as UNHCR's honorary patron for China by hailing the courage of Somali refugees and the generosity of their hosts in Ethiopia. Yao Chen travelled to Ethiopia last week to meet with Somali refugees...

Dear All, We have just opened our new Facebook page called UNHCR Dadaab & Alinjugur. facebook.com/DadaabAlinjugur It will feature stories and news done by the UNHCR Team, partners, community members, and bring other content of interest. Please join us, comment and like, so that you ca...

The flow of refugees and migrants from the Horn of Africa across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea towards Yemen continues to exceed previous records. In the first seven of 2012, more than 63,800 people made this perilous journey compared to 48,700 during the same period last year - a 30 per cent inc...

Somalia's refugee exodus crossed a new threshold this past week, with more than a million people now having fled the country for the surrounding region, according to the latest UNHCR data. The most recent arrivals continue to cite insecurity and dwindling food resources as the main reasons for their...

This past weekend UNHCR successfully completed the voluntary repatriation of 38 Tanzanian refugees from Zanzibar who had been residing in Mogadishu for the past 11 years. The group, comprising 12 families, were flown on two special UNHCR-chartered flights from Mogadishu to Zanzibar on Friday 6 Ju...

Conflict is normally cited by displaced Somalis as the main reason for flight, but in recent weeks we have seen an increase in IDPs and refugees also citing difficulty in providing for themselves. Over the past seven weeks we have registered some 6,000 Somalis who have cited such difficulties - usua...

It was with sadness that UNHCR learned yesterday of the drownings of some 47 Ethiopians in a boat capsizing incident on Lake Malawi. The exact number of deaths has not been determined. According to the reports we received, villagers around the lake found a dead body on Monday and buried it. On Tues...

UNHCR welcomes a decision by the Dominican Republic to reactivate its refugee eligibility commission that reviews asylum applications. Known as the CONARE - Comision Nacional para Refugiados - the commission held its first meeting since 2005 on June 13, reviewing some 19 asylum cases. This breakthro...

Like two other refugee locations in Djibouti, Holl-Holl was an old camp that was closed in the mid-2000s, as a consequence of massive repatriations to Ethiopia and to the breakaway territory of Somaliland where the security situation has relatively improved during the last decade. Over the last 6 y...