Roland Schilling

Roland is the Representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in the UK since July 2009. He started his work for refugees in Hong Kong 20 years ago when rescuing boat people who fled across the South China Sea. He was engaged in finding protection for Somali and Iraqi refugees in Yemen. Afterwards he moved to Moldova to help the Government to deal with displacement. When the tsunami hit several Asian countries in December 2004 he was based in Sri Lanka. He helped coordinated emergency relief and built shelter for those who lost there homes. Before coming to London, he served for the UN in Turkey, mainly dealing with refugees who left Iraq due to the violence in the country.