The
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (
UNHCR), also known as the
UN Refugee Agency, is a
United Nations agency mandated to protect and support
refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. Its headquarters are in
Geneva,
Switzerland and is a member of the
United Nations Development Group. The UNHCR has won two
Nobel Peace Prizes, once in 1954 and again in 1981.