Ireland will give £3 million to the UN High Commission for Refugees next year, the Minister of State responsible for overseas aid has announced.
Ms Liz O'Donnell said the pledge, almost double what the State donated this year, "should place Ireland among the top 15 donors to UNHCR". She made the announcement at an emergency meeting of the organisation's donors in Geneva.
The Minister said the increase was "real evidence of how our expanded aid budget can help us play a leadership role in responding to a global humanitarian emergency".
The UNHCR had recently marked its 50th anniversary, and is currently caring for 22 million refugees worldwide, she added. But although the demands on the agency were at an "all-time high", it was facing a major funding crisis.
"The result will be the winding-up of some operations with a devastating impact on the poor, particularly women and children, under its care. UNHCR faces huge challenges in areas such as Chechnya, Kosovo, East Timor, Afghanistan, the Congo, Sierra Leone, and Angola. In recent years UNHCR workers have paid with their lives to protect refugees fleeing conflict."