Refugee Field Assistant

Our primary purpose at UNHCR is to safeguard the rights and well-being of people who have been forced to flee. Together with partners and communities, we work to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another country. We also strive to secure lasting solutions.

For over half a century, UNHCR has helped millions of people to restart their lives. They include refugees, returnees, stateless people, the internally displaced and asylum-seekers. Our protection, shelter, health and education has been crucial, healing broken pasts and building brighter futures.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was created in 1950, during the aftermath of the Second World War, to help millions of Europeans who had fled or lost their homes. We had three years to complete our work and then disband.

Today, over 70 years later, our organization is still hard at work, protecting and assisting refugees around the world.

Since 24 February 2022, Romania has received almost 7 million refugees fleeing directly from Ukraine or coming from Moldova. While many refuge are passing through Romania as a transit country on their way to Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, or other countries, over 170,000 have received temporary protection status in Romania. Moreover, Romania hosts more than 4,800 beneficiaries of international protection and has had more than 2,050 asylum requests lodged in 2024. Romania’s status as both a transit and a destination country necessitates a response premised on three key directions: first, providing immediate, urgently needed protection and assistance arrivals to Romania; second, ensuring information about and access to legal statuses to which arrivals to Romania may apply, alongside non-discriminatory access to rights and services provided by the government and humanitarian actors, and third, ensure accountability and effective two-way communication with the refugee population.

Within the delegated authority and under the overall supervision of the Head of Constanta Field Office or his/her designated mandated representative(s), and under the direct supervision of the Field Associate in Constanta, the UNV Field Assistant will:

• Contribute to the strengthening of the field team’s engagement with local stakeholders, civil society, and refugee communities, as well as identify opportunities for collaboration;
• Engage the refugee communities through two-way communication to provide feedback on needs and assistance;
• Assist on conducting area based, site and needs assessments and support with data collection;
• Support with the distribution of non-food items and post-distribution monitoring in close coordination with the relevant actors;
• Support with interpretation in the exchange of routine information, and contribute to related liaison activities;
• Support with the planning of meetings, events, and field missions with participation as needed;
• In collaboration with protection staff, support to ongoing service mapping, updating the active tools;
• Support on protection monitoring in diverse spaces including Border crossing points, collective shelters, and reception centers;
• Support the needs and risks identification in the Area of Responsibility (AoR), raising risks, issues and concerns to the supervisor accordingly;
• Administrative tasks as required such as drafting reports, routine correspondence and meeting minutes;
• Contribute to age, gender, and diversity mainstreaming in all field activities;
• Perform other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.