The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 14 December 1950, with resolution A/RES/428(V). Their mandate is to coordinate international action for the protection of refugees and the resolution of their problems all over the world.

UNHCR’s primary mission is to protect the rights and welfare of refugees and to ensure that all of them can exercise their right to request asylum and seek safe shelter in another State, with the option to return voluntarily to their home Country, integrate locally or to resettle into a third Country. The remit of the UNHCR also includes assistance to stateless persons.

The UNHCR has been present in Italy, with its own office in Rome since 1953. The Italian office participates in the procedures to determine refugee status in Italy and performs other duties regarding international protection, training, dissemination of information on refugees and asylum-seekers in Italy and in the various crisis areas all over the world, raising public awareness and fund-raising with Governments, companies and individual donors. Since 2006, the Italian UNHCR Office has performed as the Regional Representative for Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal, San Marino, and the Holy See, besides Italy.