Tag Archives: Refugees

As World Refugee Day (June 20) focuses our attention on helping asylum seekers and refugees, the Safe Home Programme offers some new and innovative solutions to the complex challenge of hosting large numbers of displaced people.

After the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, countless people fled the country. Most went to other countries in Europe and now some 7 million people still live abroad.

A significant percentage of these refugees were supported by host communities including individuals and families who welcomed them into their homes. This widespread show of solidarity provided an essential lifeline to numerous people from Ukraine.

“She [the host] has done a lot for me,” said one of the Ukrainian guests, speaking about the people she…

Pakistan has been hosting a significant number of Afghan refugees since 1979. The influx of Afghan refugees into Pakistan began with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in that year. Millions of Afghans fled their country seeking refuge from the conflict and instability.

Pakistan, due to its proximity to Afghanistan and its shared border, became the primary host country for Afghan refugees. The Pakistani government, along with international humanitarian organizations, established refugee camps and provided assistance to accommodate and support the refugees.

Over the years, the number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan has fluctuated. At its peak in the 1980s, Pakistan hosted over three million Afghan refugees. With the change in political dynamics and the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan,…

Over 80,000 displaced Ukrainians have arrived in Ireland since the war started. In the midst of a wider housing crisis, the state has run out of emergency accommodation for new arrivals.

Over 1,100 Ukrainians are living with hosts in Cork and many more are still in need of accommodation. Now Helping Irish Hosts is appealing to Cork residents to come forward to offer a room in their home or a self-contained property, with a nationwide roadshow visiting Midleton this week to answer any questions locals might have about hosting.

The event, happening in Midleton Family Resource Centre on Wednesday, June 21st at 7pm, invites current hosts and anyone interested in hosting to get together for an evening of celebration and information-sharing on what it’s like to host displaced Ukrainians and…

As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its second year, the city’s challenge is to integrate tens of thousands of refugees displaced from fighting in the country’s embattled east, while creating a recovery system to make them stay.

Standing in the cobblestone square that is Lviv’s historic marketplace one could forget that this is a country at war if it wouldn’t be for the banners commemorating the city’s war heroes and the omnipresence of men in army uniforms.

As the biggest city in western Ukraine turned humanitarian hub, thousand displaced in the first months have been housed in schools and sports arenas turned into shelters, first in open rooms with mattresses on the floor and then separated by wooden partitions.

Hundreds of families have moved into container housing set up…

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Two Harvard University freshmen have launched a website designed to connect people fleeing Ukraine to those in safer countries willing to take them in — and it’s generating offers of help and housing worldwide.

Moved by the plight of Ukrainian refugees desperate to escape Russian bombardment across the former Soviet republic, Marco Burstein, 18, of Los Angeles, and Avi Schiffmann, 19, of Seattle, used their coding skills to create UkraineTakeShelter.com over three frenzied days in early March.

Since then, more than 18,000 prospective hosts have signed up on the site to offer assistance to refugees seeking matches with hosts in their preferred or convenient locations. On a recent day, Burstein and Schiffmann logged 800,000 users.

“We’ve heard all sorts of…