The Global Compact on Refugees, an international agreement adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2018, aimed to make the responsibility for helping refugees worldwide more equitable and predictable. Three years on, and ahead of the first mid-term review of progress at a high-level meeting in December 2021, the International Rescue Committee in collaboration with Danish Refugee Council and Norwegian Refugee Council, have commissioned a report to assess progress on the Compact’s objectives and commitments.

The United States has begun relocating a group of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants. The International Rescue Committee is providing services for these individuals and families, including resettling them to new communities across the US, including Arizona!

The IRC (International Rescue Committee) in Phoenix received an increased number of Afghan refugees beginning in August of 2021, after the Taliban regained control of the region. In response to that, we were one of eight RAI (Resettlement, Asylum & Integration) offices who were granted funding to launch a new wellness program, Salamati Rohi, to support our Afghan clients.

In a new report, the International Rescue Committee and two other organizations showcase how vulnerable people are forced to live in degrading conditions, and it outlines the many ways in which asylum seekers are barred from exercising their right to a fair asylum process.

The Muppets are embarking on humanitarian missions. In spring 2016, Sherrie Westin, executive vice president of global impact and philanthropy for the Sesame Workshop, and Sarah Smith, a director at the International Rescue Committee, announced a collaboration to develop educational programs for refugee children.