shelter from the storm


“SHELTER SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A NON-NEGOTIABLE HUMAN RIGHT.”


are also many new displacement situations and unresolved old ones. Some 60 million people are today forcibly displaced, almost 20 million of them refugees who have been forced to flee across international borders, and the rest are people displaced within their own countries. Now, a shelter crisis is unfolding, with millions of families arriving in refugee camps or struggling in sub-standard housing and half-built shelters.


© UNHCR/Shawn Baldwin


“Shelter is the foundation stone for refugees to survive and recover, and should be considered a non- negotiable human right,” says Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “As we tackle worldwide displacement on a level not seen since World War II no refugee should be left outside.”


The Nobody Left Outside campaign aims to raise funds from the private sector to build or improve shelter for 2 million refugees by 2018, amounting to more than one in eight of the 15.1


million under UNHCR’s


provenance (mid 2015). The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) cares for the remaining Palestinian refugees.


© UNHCR/Sebastian Rich


Without a major increase in funding and global support, millions of people fleeing war and persecution face homelessness or inadequate housing in countries such as Lebanon, Mexico and Tanzania. Without a safe place to eat, sleep, study, store belongings and have privacy, the consequences


to their health and welfare can be profound.


Providing shelter on a global scale is a massive logistical undertaking. Every year, UNHCR purchases 70,000 tents and more than 2


million tarpaulins, which have


come to symbolize the response to humanitarian emergencies.


However, as UNHCR continues to face high levels of shelter needs and with limited funding available, operations often face the difficult decision shelter


to for prioritize emergency the maximum number


of people of concern, over an investment in more durable and sustainable solutions. Outside of camps, refugees rely on UNHCR support to find housing and pay rent in towns and cities across dozens of countries bordering conflict zones.


Ahmad, for example, is a Syrian refugee who lives in Jordan with his wife and five children. He, like many other Syrian refugees, doesn’t live in


20 / UNHCR


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