In a press release, UNHCR alerted that more than three quarters of Nicaraguan refugees and asylum-seekers in Costa Rica are going hungry, eating only once or twice a day as a result of the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

80% of protection clusters (21 out of 26) report escalating conflict and/or political instability since the outbreak of COVID-19. This is undermining efforts to curb the spread of the virus, triggering new displacements, reducing safe access to vital health and sanitation services and impeding life-saving protection and humanitarian services.

UNHCR's report on consequences of underfunding, released on 18 September, describes the COVID-19 pandemic as a ‘force multiplier’, increasing the needs of the displaced population including refugees in many countries while also making those needs more difficult to address.

A series of fires at the Reception and Identification Centre in Moria (Lesvos, Greece) on 8-10 September left 12,000 asylum-seekers and refugees without shelter. UNHCR is supporting the government-led response by scaling up immediate support to this urgent crisis and is seeking to mobilize additional resources to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through adequate health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) capacity.

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.