Photo of the Year: Top refugee photos from 2024

2024 Photo of the Year

Our Photo of the Year features Khalid and his family. The family are refugees from Syria who have been living in the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan since 2016. Sadly, their shelter recently caught fire, resulting in the loss of all their belongings during the cold winter season. But, thanks to UNHCR, they now have a new shelter and are receiving essential support to keep their family warm, including blankets, mattresses, a gas cylinder and kitchen tools.

Runners Up

Zohal, a Afghan refugee living in the Seattle, WA area, cooks a meal with colleagues and friends at Project Feast. The local non-profit organization, Project Feast, runs a cafe and 14-week culinary apprenticeship program that combines classroom, kitchen and English language lessons to help apprentices prepare for jobs in the food industry. Zohal met Abby and Danny during her apprenticeship at Project Feast and the women have become friends and support systems for one another as they develop their businesses and careers.

Rogeline is an internally displaced person (IDP) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who was forced to flee her home in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2000, when an armed group raided her village in the middle of the night. She lost sight in one eye during the brutal attack.

In 2019, Rogeline was forced to flee violence again, making the days-long journey to Bunia where she is now sheltering at the Kigonze displacement site.

Without the prospect of safely returning home, she now faces the hardships and risks of prolonged displacement — her basic needs remain precarious, including the need for stable, long-term shelter. Rogeline says her reliance on humanitarian aid heavily impacts her life, but she hopes that the income she makes by selling small commercial goods could transform her circumstances.

Kyle Kvamme was inspired by his best friend Juan, a gay asylum seeker from Venezuela, to turn his empathy for refugees into action. As a passionate refugee ally and communications specialist at the Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM), Kyle uses the power of storytelling to uplift LGBTQIA+ refugees.

These two little girls live in one of the most heavily earthquake-affected villages in Barmal, Afghanistan. Thanks to UNHCR, their village has received new, reinforced shelters equipped with environmentally friendly solar panels and batteries for lighting, modern latrines for improved sanitation and hygiene and stoves for heating and cooking. The homes were built using local labor to help add cash flow to the region, which faces extreme poverty.

30-year-old Ahmed Mohamed Suleiman and his family fled violence in Laascaanood, Somalia. Ahmed was a university teacher and a PhD candidate back home. "We lived a comfortable life. We had our home, our jobs, we had plans for the future. But now our home is broken," he explains. Ahmed’s family was among the first to be relocated to Mirqaan settlement in Ethiopia where he is now the refugee chairman, representing his community and advocating for their rights.

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