UNHCR – Egypt

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is committed to protecting people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. The global organization safeguards the rights and well-being of refugees, asylum-seekers and of people displaced within their own county. It also has a mandate to support stateless people. Globally, UNHCR has more than 16,700 personnel and works in 138 countries. UNHCR strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find refuge in another country, and to return home voluntarily. By assisting refugees to return to their own country or to settle permanently in another country, the organization also seeks lasting solutions to their plight. The UN Refugee Agency was created in 1950, during the aftermath of the Second World War. UNHCR’s efforts are mandated by its Statute and guided by the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. To date, 148 States are parties to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and/or to its 1967 Protocol.