UNHCR is UNFAIR

The campaign "UNFAIR - The UN Refusal Agency" criticises the work of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), particularly in Libya. Instead of fulfilling its mandate to protect refugees, asylum seekers, and people on the move, the UNHCR is protecting European borders and has become an instrument of European externalisation policies.

Why UNFAIR?

 

“UNHCR has failed me”, states a survivor in her testimony on the website of the protest movement Refugees in Libya. Again and again this is what we hear from survivors of the Libyan hell. Refugees put their hope and trust in UNHCR, they ask for its protection but UNHCR fails them. UNHCR fails them, even though its mandate of protection and advocacy on an international level is much needed by an increasing number of people in dire situations. According to the mandate, UNHCR should protect those who are forcibly displaced. However, the displaced in Libya are emphasising the lack of protection and unfair treatment they experience by UNHCR.

 

The unfair treatment that refugees around the world receive by UNHCR offices has sparked many powerful protests.

 

Unfair treatment means that refugees’ rights are not respected, that UNHCR is not playing by its own rules and that those who fled war and violence are treated and punished like criminals. Instead of listening and improving, UNHCR criticises refugees' protests and remains silent in light of brutal evictions and detention lasting for many to the present day. Refugees in Libya are not the only ones protesting. The unfair treatment that refugees around the world receive by UNHCR offices has sparked many powerful protests. From Cairo to Pretoria, from Tunis to Ankara, people on the move around the world have raised their voices and have taken their protest to the streets against the neglect by UNHCR and for the world to see. The agency’s response is always the same: pretend to care, change nothing, neglect, repress. And yet, they will not be silenced. We will listen to their stories and amplify their voices until UNHCR takes on its responsibility and acts up to its own mandate: protecting those forcibly displaced and in need of assistance.

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UNFAIR was initiated jointly by the self-organised refugee movement "Refugees in Libya" and the transnational solidarity alliance "Solidarity with Refugees in Libya". Through Refugees in Libya, the solidarity alliance is in constant contact with people on the move in Libya, amplifying their voices and strong criticisms of the UNHCR. We are trying to accomplish this through organising protests, public relations and negotiations with politicians and the UNHCR itself. We recognize the challenges faced by the UNHCR in operating in war-torn Libya, but we believe that the UN agency can do a better job of fulfilling its mandate. Because it must. Because people's lives and human rights must be protected. Support our cause, follow our social media, and join our next protest action!