Location Vasant Vihar, Delhi | ||
Address B2/16, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, India | ||
The head office of UNHCR's mission in India is located in Delhi, with a field office in Chennai. UNHCR also has registration services in Jammu, besides a registration and mobile refugee status determination center at Hyderabad. Actor John Abraham is a celebrity supporter for UNHCR in India. The current chief of mission is Yasuko Shimizu. UNHCR won the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development in 2015.
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History
India was the venue for the single largest influx of refugees since the Second World War, when an estimated 10 million people crossed over from East Pakistan to India in 1971. The majority of refugees were in West Bengal, Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam. The majority of the refugees were repatriated after the war, with the UNHCR Dhaka office's support. UNHCR has been allowed to operate in India since 1995, even though India has not signed the 1951 Refugee Status Convention or the 1967 Refugee Status Protocol.
Work
UNHCR works with several NGOs including Bosco, the Socio Legal Information Centre (SLIC), the Gandhi National Memorial Society, the Confederation of Voluntary Agencies and Development And Justice Initiative (DAJI), ACCESS, and Save the Children (SCF) to support refugees and asylum seekers. Most of the Sri Lankan and Tibetan refugees are directly assisted by the India Government. UNHCR strives to improve the lives of refugees under its mandate, the majority of whom are refugees from Myanmar and Afghanis.
The 'Ilham' project, a catering service run by Afghan refugee women with the help of UNHCR India and its partner ACCESS Development Services, has been receiving rave reviews. The project has given a new ray of hope for the women, who have found a reliable means of supporting their families, besides coping with the physical and psychological problems of refugee life.
Funding
UNHCR India had a budget of $15.1 million for 2016, of which only $608,500 has been met as of October 2016. UNIQLO has been the only major donor for the funding round.
Refugee numbers in India
The World Refugee Survey by US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants estimate the number of refugees in India at 456,000. The number of refugees who have registered with UNHCR are however around 200,000.