Humanitarian assistance (Basic needs and food)

When refugees and migrants leave their countries, they face difficulties and risks at their arrival in a new country. Humanitarian organizations provide support so that they can meet their urgent basic needs. This support is known as humanitarian assistance.  

🚨 It is important for you to know that humanitarian assistance:  

– is not an automatic right of all refugees, asylum seekers or migrants. It depends on the analysis of each case:
– is provided for a limited time
– cannot be extended  

If you need access to humanitarian assistance, contact HIAS.  

✅ Bear in mind that the assistance delivered is not immediate. In general, the process you’ll have to go through is as follows:  

1. Once you contact HIAS, an official will ask you for your data.  Depending on your case, you’ll be assigned a date for an appointment. 
2. At the appointment you will be asked for your information to carry out the registration process, do not give it to other people.
3. Your data will be verified and with the information you provided, an assessment of your situation will be carried out to determine whether or not you will receive humanitarian assistance.  

Watch out! All humanitarian assistance is FREE. If a humanitarian worker has requested money, sexual favors or any other payment in exchange for humanitarian assistance, report it! , your case will be handled confidentially and will not prevent you from getting assistance from humanitarian organizations.  

To report, send an email to [email protected]

Below you’ll find some frequent questions that may interest you.


Who gets humanitarian assistance?

Refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and stateless persons who need it most. To ensure that this is the case, we take into account a combination of various criteria including income 💲, ability to meet basic needs ⚡, living conditions and access to services.

✅ Each case is analyzed separately and the criteria for defining those who receive assistance are determined by an internal and objective system that does NOT depend on staff members of UNHCR, HIAS or any partner agency providing humanitarian assistance.

If you want your case to be evaluated for humanitarian assistance, contact HIAS.

Si quieres que tu caso sea evaluado para recibir asistencia humanitaria, comunícate con HIAS.


What types of assistance are there?

There are 2 types of assistance:

Multipurpose monetary assistance

It is a type of humanitarian assistance aimed at refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants so that they can meet urgent basic needs, such as food ?, housing ?️ and health expenses.

Emergency monetary assistance

It is aimed at refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants who have specific protection needs so that they can cover a specific expense.