L’impatto della crisi pandemica sui rifugiati: ruolo, interventi e limiti dell’ACNUR

The pandemic crisis has left the world vulnerable, without exception, toan invisible enemy. This paper initially provides a brief overview of theUNHCR's mandate and governance. This proves to be useful inunderstanding the Agency's role in managing the pandemic crisis and therelative effectiveness of the interventions it has implemented through the“Covid-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan”. At the same time, morecritical positions of the support actions led by the UNHCR are analyzed: themonitoring document of the “Covid-19 Global Humanitarian ResponsePlan”; the observations of the Norwegian Refugee Council and HumanRights Watch. Subsequently, it is shown that the impact of Covid-19 onrefugees, displaced persons and other vulnerable groups has not onlyaffected the world’s poorest countries. The inability to sustain international protection actions is emerging in more advanced regions of the world suchas Europe. This aspect is central to understanding the influence of thewillingness of States on the UNHCR's global activities and programmes. So,the questions are: do the Agency's protection actions during a pandemiccrisis prove to be adequate to the current needs or not? If weak, would thereasons lie in the way the UNHCR is funded? Is the growing number of people seeking international protection followed by a steady increase in thefinancial resources allocated by countries? What are the effects on refugees,displaced persons, asylum seekers and stateless persons?