ReliefWeb

BY UNHCR INNOVATION

Urban refugees sometimes have a wealth of assistance at their fingertips, and yet no comprehensive, up-to-date and accurate online resource to help them access it. UNHCR Innovation tackled this issue with a challenge through UNHCR Ideas and came up with a winner: a website that is simple, effective and now—scaling up to become a global solution.

At help.unhcr.org, refugees find tailored information about rights and protections in their country of asylum. HELP also lists the resources available to them in person or online, and the specifics of finding work, education, and legal advice.

“This platform is useful for your operation to provide what you consider the most important protection information [asylum seekers] should have, and taking into consideration their opinion on what type of information they need,” says Rebecca Moreno, Link Lab Manager.

The information that refugees need

For a glimpse into the site’s internal organization, information is catalogued using a green, yellow and red light system. Green information, visible under tabs labeled “Country Information” and How to Seek Help,” is public and non-sensitive and includes the facts all refugees need about things like money and housing costs.

Red information is more sensitive or political. In Europe, for example, this includes updates on onward movement and other information that is not aligned with UNHCR policy.

According to Moreno, yellow information is the information that is extremely valuable to asylum seekers and refugees. This category contains protection-related knowledge, like information about the asylum claim process itself, durable solutions options and other support programs.

That’s why although plenty of other useful and timely platforms pop up, nowhere else can refugees get complete and correct information about what documents to bring with them for claim-related appointments, what their rights are when it comes to work or travel, and resettlement information and answers to common questions.

In these ways the content on help.unchr.org responds to a main criticism of the organization’s overall website: there is no specific information for my population.

Read the full story on the UNHCR innovation blog.