UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi concluded his visit to Syria and Jordan with a pledge to maintain assistance to the most vulnerable as the situation in Syria continues to be extremely difficult for Syrian and refugee populations. Following a recent spike in COVID-19 infections in Syria and Jordan, including the first six confirmed cases in Jordan’s two main Syrian refugee camps, UNHCR continues to ramp up measures to confront and contain the spread of COVID-19 among UNHCR’s persons of concern.

As part of the annual NGO consultations, UNHCR and some 100 NGOs called on global leaders to ensure that refugees are included in social safety nets and support services for COVID-19 and stressed the need for stronger integration of refugees and refugee-led organisations, their skills and knowledge, in humanitarian responses.

In a press release, UNHCR urged more support for refugee higher education to withstand the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. UNHCR published its annual DAFI report on 28 September highlighting data on refugee tertiary enrolment.

During UNHCR’s annual Executive Committee, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, highlighted that maintaining levels of humanitarian aid is a comparatively inexpensive way to save lives and protect refugees and their host communities facing a “pandemic of poverty” resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a key annual address to UNHCR’s annual Executive Committee meeting in Geneva, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs, warned that COVID-19 is severely testing refugee protection.

In a press release on the eve of the donor conference for Rohingya refugees, UNHCR called for solidarity, support and solutions for this stateless and displaced population as the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has added layers of new challenges and needs to an already complex and massive refugee emergency.

After a seven-month suspension due to COVID-19, UNHCR's life-saving flights from Libya have resumed. A group of 153 vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers have been evacuated from Libya to the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) in Niger.

As countries all over the world battle a second wave of the pandemic, UNHCR is highlighting with a new data visualization tool how acutely vulnerable forcibly displaced populations must contend with extreme overcrowding and limited access to basics such as soap and water. [Link to the data visualization tool: https://arcg.is/ObLOL]

During the opening of a virtual session of UNHCR’s annual High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection challenges, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs, underlined the importance of inclusion for the protection of refugees and their hosts in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UNHCR has helped hundreds of refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) to return home in recent days – the first such move since the COVID-19 pandemic forced border closures.