MapAction Supports Co-ordination of the Refugee Crisis in the Mediterranean

MapAction is deploying volunteers to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offices in Athens, Belgrade and Geneva to support the coordination of the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. Europe is experiencing a movement of people on a scale not seen since the Second World War, more than 600,000 people have arrived in Europe by sea during 2015 alone. A key challenge is understanding this mass movement of people, so that relief efforts can be coordinated and targeted effectively. This takes on a strong geographical dimension, which is of course where MapAction can play a vital role. This is an unusual mission for MapAction who typically only deploy to countries where technical mapping skills are in short supply and sudden onset disasters have overwhelmed existing capacity. www.mapaction.org