Help global / Privacy notice

Privacy notice

This privacy notice explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal data when you visit this website. By visiting the website, you are accepting the provisions set out in this privacy notice.

This privacy notice is intended for users of UNHCR Help websites and associated sites that provide information to refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless and internally displaced people. We have other privacy notices in relation to our other websites and data processing activities, such as our main public and fundraising websites, inter-agency websites, and other specific purposes.

1. WHO ARE WE? 

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (“UNHCR”), also known as UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights, and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people. Together with partners and communities, UNHCR works to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another country. UNHCR also strives to secure lasting solutions. 

2. BACKGROUND ON OUR LEGAL FRAMEWORK

UNHCR enjoys a special legal status in accordance with the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations of 1946. This convention grants UNHCR and other UN agencies the privileges and immunities necessary to perform our functions independently and without interference. 

UNHCR processes personal data in accordance with our data protection framework, which is set out in our General Policy on Personal Data Protection and Privacy. It aims to protect the dignity and fundamental rights of data subjects (individuals whose data is being collected, stored, or used). It is aligned with the UN Principles on Personal Data Protection and Privacy.

3. WHAT DATA ARE WE COLLECTING?

3.1 INFORMATION YOU GIVE US

UNHCR Help websites in certain countries include contact or request forms to enable you to ask questions or request assistance from UNHCR. When you fill out such forms, you knowingly provide us with personal information about you, such as your name, email address, phone number, identifying information and other data.

Other services to facilitate your communication and information from UNHCR, such as an email list sign-up form or call or chat functionality, may also be available.

For this category of data (which is information you provide to us directly), the responsibility for deciding how your personal data is used, and for ensuring that it is protected, sits with the UNHCR office/entity that manages the specific Help site that you are visiting.

UNHCR will only collect the data that is required to provide you with the service or assistance that you are requesting and will only use your personal data for the specific reason that you provided it to us.

Opting out

By providing us with contact information via a form or by signing up to an email list, you are opting in to receive communications from UNHCR. Depending on the contact data you provide and the availability of communication channels, you may also be contacted via mail, phone, email,or messaging.

Email newsletters from UNHCR always include an ‘Unsubscribe’ option at the bottom through which you can remove your address from the relevant mailing list. If you wish to opt out of other communications, please contact the UNHCR office to which you provided your information.

3.2 INFORMATION WE COLLECT AUTOMATICALLY

Aside from the personal information that you provide us with for a specific purpose, our websites also collect anonymous information about your browsing behaviour when you visit our websites, through the use of cookies. This helps us to maintain and improve our websites.

We safeguard this automatically collected data and will never use it for any marketing-related purposes.

For this category of data, the responsibility for deciding how your personal data is used, and for ensuring that it is protected, sits with the UNHCR Division of External Relations (DER).

Read our detailed cookie notice for further information.

4. WHO WILL HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR DATA?

Your data will be accessed only by a limited number of authorized personnel within UNHCR, on a strict need-to-know basis.

In certain circumstances, for example to provide you with follow-up support to your query or request for help, your data may be shared with UNHCR’s partner organizations and other entities that provide protection and services.

All UNHCR partners are bound by strict confidentiality agreements and adhere to the same high standards of data protection and privacy as UNHCR.

We will always keep your information safe, and we will never sell or swap your information with any other third party.

5. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR DATA?

For the personal data that you provide to us directly, your data is kept for only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected them for – this includes for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or archiving requirements. Your data may be deleted upon your request or if you have been inactive for a specified timeframe. The retention period will vary based on the specific purpose of the activity.

For data that we collect automatically, our retention period is 5 years. This is so we can compare and analyze usage and activity across our websites.

6. WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS?

As a data subject, you have specific rights regarding how we process your data, including where a third party processes data on our behalf. These rights are based on UNHCR’s overarching data protection framework.

  1. Right to information and access. You have the right to be informed about how we process your data and request access to your personal data that UNHCR holds.
  2. Right to rectification. You have the right to request the correction or completion of any inaccurate or incomplete personal data concerning you.
  3. Right to deletion. You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data if there is no legitimate basis for its processing or if the personal data is no longer necessary for the specified or compatible purposes for which it was collected.
    Please be aware that there may be legitimate grounds for retaining your data for a longer period, such as for archiving (administrative, fiscal, legal, or historical value), statistical or scientific research purposes, for accountability of UNHCR’s actions, or when necessary for the long-term provision of protection, assistance, and solutions for forcibly displaced and stateless people. Your data may also be deleted upon your request or if you have been inactive for a specified timeframe.
  4. Right to object. You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data at any time, on legitimate grounds relating to your particular situation.

How to exercise your rights

UNHCR is committed to ensuring that processes are in place for you to exercise your data subject rights. Please contact the relevant UNHCR country office directly.

Important considerations and limitations

General Limitations: UNHCR may refuse, in whole or in part, a request to exercise a data subject right under specific circumstances. These include if the request is manifestly unfounded, abusive, fraudulent, or obstructive to the purpose of processing.

Privileges and immunities: Please note that the processes related to the exercise of data subject rights, complaints, and redress requests are without prejudice and subject to UNHCR’s privileges and immunities as outlined in the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.

7. UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We will revise or update this privacy notice if our practices change. We encourage you to visit this section of the website regularly in order to keep up to date with any changes. Changes to the notice will apply from the date they are posted on our site and will not apply retroactively.

This privacy notice was last updated on 20 April, 2026.