The International Olympic Committee and the UN refugee agency have revealed the final refugee squad competing under the Olympic flag during next month's Tokyo Games. Six of the 29 members were already part of the first refugee team at Rio 2016.
With the Olympic Games just two months away, refugee athletes are putting everything they have into reaching the goal of competing on the team in Tokyo.
The Swiss government has announced it will take in up to 1,600 refugees till the end of 2023. Most beneficiaries will be persons fleeing conflict and persecution in five different countries.
UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations, and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, have signed a cooperation protocol to support refugees and forcibly displaced people. In a statement, they says the want to harness "the transformative power of football to assist and uphold their rights and strengthen their integration in their host communities."
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said that refugee resettlement was at a "record low" in 2020. The agency called on more countries to offer resettlement places in the future in order to save lives.
According to the latest UN migration report, the growth of global numbers of migrants in 2020 was "slowed by about 27% or two million migrants due to COVID-19."
A new report by the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) reveals that migrants earn up to 42% less than national workers in high-income countries, with women worse off than men. The COVID-19 pandemic will likely exacerbate the pay gap.
The year 2020 is not yet over, but already the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has estimated that the number of the forcibly displaced "surpassed 80 million at mid-year." This is according to a report on trends in global forced displacement released on December 9.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 2.75 million migrants have been stranded globally due to mobility restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
UN refugee chief Filipp Grandi has called on countries to be more generous in taking in people in need of protection. Grandi also lambasted governments for their xenophobic tendencies, which he said must not dominate asylum policy.
The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR has urged more support for refugees accessing higher education in order to withstand the impact of COVID-19.
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the vulnerability of refugees and migrants worldwide. That's a key message of this year's World Risk Report (WRR), whose focus is on "Forced Displacement & Migration".