Switz­er­land for UNHCR: Hope in the refu­gee crisis

How has the refu­gee situa­tion evol­ved around the world over the past year?

I’ve been working in the huma­ni­ta­rian sector for over a decade and every time UNHCR publishes its global report featuring the figu­res on displa­ce­ment for the previous year, new all-time records are set. More and more conflicts are brea­king out, such as in Sudan a year ago, or in Gaza — although the latter is under UNRWA’s* mandate, and not UNHCR’s*. There are constantly new emer­gen­cies arising and old ones seem to perma­nently remain unsol­ved. At the end of 2023, UNHCR recor­ded 114 Mio. forci­bly displa­ced people around the world – 6 Mio. more than 6 months earlier. This only reflects the state of the world and in fact, these figu­res are comple­tely devoid of any sense of what each and every person forced to flee endu­res in her or his flight for safety.

[*UNRWA: United Nati­ons Relief and Works Agency for Pales­tine Refugees

* UNHCR: United Nati­ons Refu­gee Agency]

The public focus is on current conflicts such as in the Gaza Strip or Ukraine: how diffi­cult is it to draw public atten­tion to other crises such as in the DR Congo, Sudan, Syria or Afghanistan?

To put it simply: it is very chal­len­ging. But we also believe that inter­views like this one can help shed light on the emer­gen­cies that no one hears about. Many people think that UNHCR is only funded by govern­ments who pay a fixed amount each year since we have recei­ved our mandate from the UN Gene­ral Assem­bly. But in reality, contri­bu­ti­ons from indi­vi­du­als and the private sector are incre­asingly neces­sary as govern­ment contri­bu­ti­ons are not incre­asing at the same rate as the needs.

But in reality, contri­bu­ti­ons from indi­vi­du­als and the private sector are incre­asingly neces­sary as govern­ment contri­bu­ti­ons are not incre­asing at the same rate as the needs.

Cris­tina Davies, Execu­tive Direc­tor Switz­er­land for UNHCR

In addi­tion, there are volun­t­ary contri­bu­ti­ons that go to a speci­fic setting and are ther­e­fore tightly earmarked, leaving less flexi­bi­lity for UNHCR. When the full-scale war in Ukraine star­ted in 2022, the Swiss popu­la­tion showed great support and was very gene­rous. But unfort­u­na­tely, two years later the war is still on and we’re begin­ning to feel a kind of fati­gue cree­ping in. I just want to remind ever­yone: every dona­tion can make a diffe­rence. No matter how small it is. But this some­ti­mes does not feel like a strong enough message against the back­drop of infla­tion and the stagna­tion of real sala­ries. Besi­des Ukraine, many other emer­gen­cies are under­fun­ded and the staff at UNHCR cannot provide all the neces­sary help to the forci­bly displa­ced. At Switz­er­land for UNHCR, we keep on informing about ongo­ing conflicts around the world, and we use all the chan­nels and means that we have: website, social media, news­let­ters, events. Most people don’t know about situa­tions like Sudan or the Demo­cra­tic Repu­blic of Congo. Or some­ti­mes they simply forgot about the war in Syria, as it has alre­ady been going on for 13 years. So, our objec­tive is to raise aware­ness about the needs of the people forced to flee in these countries.

How can the Swiss society make a grea­ter contri­bu­tion for refugees?

The Swiss popu­la­tion is alre­ady very support­ive. But since the number of conflicts in the world is incre­asing, the number of refu­gees and intern­ally displa­ced people remains unbe­lie­v­a­bly high. They need our help.

Support­ing the inclu­sion of refu­gees is one way to help: we can help them find their place in their host commu­ni­ties, welcome them, employ them. In the end, this will also be good for our coun­try, because we can bene­fit a lot from their know­ledge and expe­ri­ence. We face a lack of skil­led workers in Switz­er­land, so this is also where the inte­gra­tion of refu­gees comes into play. Moreo­ver, it is a way for anyone in this coun­try who feels that what is happe­ning around them is not ok to act. They are not satis­fied with the diffe­rent situa­tions around the world and they don’t want to feel help­less. They can actively make a change by dona­ting to Switz­er­land for UNHCR and support the forci­bly displa­ced all over the world by giving them new perspec­ti­ves for the future. Every Franc helps!

You don’t only work toge­ther with indi­vi­du­als, but also with compa­nies or foundations.

Yes, the private sector is a funda­men­tal part of our work. The Swiss public, but also compa­nies, big and small, foun­da­ti­ons and phil­an­thro­pists gene­rously support UNHCR’s work. This often invol­ves not only finan­cial dona­ti­ons, but also in-kind gifts or services. This can be, for exam­ple, logi­stics aid, as it was the case with the MSC Foun­da­tion, who deli­vered seve­ral tons of relief items to thou­sands of refu­gees in Ukraine — and more recently to those in need in Syria and Türkiye after the earth­quake. And we also recently kicked off a colla­bo­ra­tion with the Z Zurich Foun­da­tion in the area of emer­gen­cies. The ideas for part­ner­ships often come from compa­nies in the private sector them­sel­ves, who approach us and offer their services and support. And we are very grateful for this. 

How do you, as a Swiss foun­da­tion, work toge­ther with UNHCR, the UN Refu­gee Agency?

We are UNHCR’s natio­nal part­ner in Switz­er­land and Liech­ten­stein. We mobi­lize resour­ces for UNHCR’s mission in these two count­ries and raise aware­ness for the refu­gee cause and UNHCR’s work among the popu­la­tion. Switz­er­land for UNHCR is a foun­da­tion under Swiss law, indeed, but we are part of the larger ecosys­tem around UNHCR. We work with the UN Refu­gee Agency and its office in Switz­er­land and Liech­ten­stein on a daily basis, for the same cause. One of the main diffe­ren­ces is that since we are a Swiss foun­da­tion, dona­ti­ons are tax deductible.

Are there any deve­lo­p­ments that curr­ently give hope that a sustainable impro­ve­ment in the situa­tion of refu­gees is possi­ble in certain regions?

We see that UNHCR’s mission is working in many places. One of my favou­rite examp­les is a higher educa­tion campaign laun­ched by UNHCR, named Aiming Higher that supports UNHCR’s Refu­gee Scho­lar­ships Programme. So far, 21.5 million Dollars were raised making it possi­ble for 1680 scho­lars to complete four full years of higher educa­tion. Educa­tion is by far the best invest­ment any society can make as they in turn contri­bute to the host commu­nity or to their home coun­try when­ever they are allo­wed to return.

Educa­tion is by far the best invest­ment any society can make as they in turn contri­bute to the host commu­nity or to their home coun­try when­ever they are allo­wed to return.

Cris­tina Davies

If refu­gees cannot go to school or pursue a profes­sio­nal career, entire gene­ra­ti­ons will be lost. They won’t be able to make a living for them­sel­ves nor pursue their dreams. Assis­tance is in fact very frus­t­ra­ting as each human being wants to live in a digni­fied way and have their own means of living. This is a good way to remem­ber that UNHCR provi­des not only first aid, but it’s also their mission to make sure refu­gees can build a new, inde­pen­dent life in dignity.

Do you see poten­tial for deve­lo­p­ment in which direc­tion refu­gee work can go in order to become more effective?

I believe that inves­t­ing in the future of refu­gees is key. As I previously mentio­ned it, UNHCR’s ulti­mate goal is to find long-lasting solu­ti­ons for the forci­bly displa­ced. Whether they find their new home in a new commu­nity or back in their own coun­try: inte­gra­tion into the work­place redu­ces the finan­cial burden from the host coun­try and the inter­na­tio­nal commu­nity and helps refu­gees build a new life in a digni­fied manner. We have to remem­ber that nobody choses to be a refu­gee. These people don’t want to depend on huma­ni­ta­rian aid, they want their life back, contri­bute to society, use their skills and be trea­ted as any citi­zen in society.

Find more infor­ma­tion about our work and on how to support refu­gees as a Swiss citi­zen here.