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Photo Galleries
Our photo library in Geneva is the world's largest collection of refugee-related photos covering nearly all of the major displacements of the last 60 years. These images provide a comprehensive portrait of the lives of refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people and the stateless in all corners of the globe, as well as the work of thousands of UN staff who have helped them. Most photos are showcased here and on Flickr. We offer the use of our photos free to the media - please just remember to credit us!
A Family On the Move in South Sudan
Added 25 Sep 2012
When fighting erupted in Blue Nile state last year, 80-year-old Dawa Musa’s family fled to the neighbouring village. Dawa was too frail to make the two-day journey by foot, so her son, Awad carried her.
After several months, artillery began shelling the village. Awad again fled with his family – this time across the border to South Sudan. For 15 gruelling days, he carried both his elderly mother and his daughter Zainab on his back. UNHCR transported the family to Jamam refugee camp in South Sudan's Upper Nile state.
Later, when heavy rains caused flooding, UNHCR relocated Awad and his family along with 56,000 others to a new camp. Awad carried his mother once again, but this time it was to their new tent in Gendrassa camp. Awad has plans to begin farming. "Come back in three months,” he said, “and there will be maize growing."
All photos UNHCR/B. Sokol.
Nansen Refugee Award 2012
Added 18 Sep 2012
Hawa Aden Mohamed, a former refugee whose visionary work has transformed the lives of thousands of displaced Somali women and girls, is the winner of the 2012 Nansen Refugee Award. Widely known as “Mama” Hawa, she is the founder and director of an ambitious education programme in Galkayo, Somalia, that helps women and girls secure their rights, develop vital skills and play a more active role in society. View a slideshow of Mama Hawa’s work at the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development, which offers literacy courses and vocational training as well as food and other forms of humanitarian relief to internally displaced people [IDP].
All photos UNHCR / F. Juez
Dollo Ado: A Year After the Somalia Famine
Added 17 Sep 2012
All photos UNHCR/J.Ose
In mid-2011, Dollo Ado was at the heart of a refugee crisis as a wave of Somalis facing violence and starvation at home trekked through the desert to seek safety in the small, remote border town in eastern Ethiopia. Many arrived exhausted, sick and emaciated, often carrying weak or dying children.
To deal with the mass influx, UNHCR and the Ethiopian government built three new refugee camps. The agency and its partners also set up critical nutrition programmes in the camps. Large-scale water, sanitation and hygiene programmes, combined with mass vaccinations and other public health measures, saved numerous lives.
Today, the Dollo Ado area hosts five camps, with a total population of nearly 170,000 refugees. The malnutrition rates among children have begun to stabilise. UNHCR’s focus is to improve lives in the camp by launching livelihood programmes and environmental projects for refugees and the host communities.
