Amidst uncertainty, a helpline becomes a lifeline

News story

26 December 2025

UNHCR staff and partners stand on the frontlines whenever and wherever people are in need. Sumaiya – a dedicated UNHCR helpline agent – directly hears from refugees and asylum-seekers every day, supporting them through their most vulnerable moments.

In a lively room filled with monitors and headsets, Sumaiya sits among a multilingual team of 40 colleagues – speakers of Pashto, Dari, Persian, Arabic, Urdu and English. Each colleague sits side by side, each headset connecting them to a different life, a different fear, a different story. Like the rest of the team, Sumaiya typically receives 30 to 40 calls per day, but on peak days, it can reach up to 60.

Many callers are women without male family heads – mothers with young children, widows, single women who have built their entire lives in Pakistan but now fear everything could change overnight. They ask heartbreaking questions: “What will happen to us?” “Is it true they will deport us?” “We don’t want to go back. How can I live in Afghanistan?”

In most cases, Sumaiya refers the callers to the relevant UNHCR services, provides guidance and shares practical information. But what weighs on her most is when she cannot give them certainty. She recalls one call from a single mother who broke down in tears, explaining that her house had been raided and demolished, and that none of her neighbors would open their doors to her and her children. In moments like these, she simply stays on the line – sometimes for twenty minutes – letting someone cry, offering a small space to breathe.

“It is really hard not to feel their pain,” she says. “You can’t go numb. You speak the same language as them. You share the culture. You have lived the same life. Their fear becomes your fear.”

Some days, she ends her shift feeling drained – “helpless,” she admits – yet every morning, she returns to the frontline.

Since 2023, following the decision of the Government of Pakistan to proceed with the implementation of their ‘Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan’ (IFRP), over one million Afghans have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan. For decades, many of them have considered Pakistan their home, and struggle at the prospect of returning to a country in deep humanitarian crisis.

Refugees and asylum-seekers, especially those residing around the capital city of Pakistan, can no longer easily access UNHCR offices or partner locations, as movement has been further restricted. Support continues through the helpline thanks to humanitarian funding from the European Union and other donors.

Many callers now seek help in clarifying rumors – misinformation about deportation or false promises of resettlement in exchange for money. The helpline has become a lifeline.

“It protects them,” Sumaiya explains. “If the helpline didn’t exist, so many people would be cheated, misled, or terrified for no reason.”

For people who cannot leave their homes, the phone line is often the only bridge between them and accurate information – sometimes the only bridge between fear and clarity.

Amid the many painful calls she handles, one memory continues to give her strength.

An elderly Afghan woman, completely alone, once called simply to thank her. She had received life-saving cash assistance from UNHCR and wanted the helpline to know what it meant to her.

“The woman had no family, no support system, and no safety net. She lives completely alone,” Sumaiya recalls. “She must have been around 55, but she sounded much older. For a brief moment, I felt my work truly mattered. Our work at UNHCR reaches the people who need it most.”

Outside of work, Sumaiya has a different identity: an artist.

During the pandemic in 2020, when the world slowed down, she began painting inside the UNHCR office, expressing hope through art. What started as a simple idea—painting an entrance gate—became a major creative project. She painted murals, truck-art motifs with many different colors.

Art, she says, is her love language. A way of saying, “I was here, and I cared.” A way of caring for people, making them happy.

She laughs that she worries her artistic side is fading, but the truth is clear in her voice: her creativity isn’t gone—it’s just resting beneath the weight of the work she does every day.

Sumaiya’s work is invisible to most people, hidden behind phone lines. But through her voice, hundreds of refugees and asylum-seekers find clarity, safety, or at the very least, someone who will listen.

She describes the helpline as “the only door many refugees can open.” And she is the person standing on the other side.

By Hyejin Lee

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With the support of the European Union and other donors, and in partnership with UNOPS, UNHCR’s helpline provides refugees and asylum-seekers with critical information on their rights and stay in Pakistan, as well as guidance to access assistance. UNHCR Pakistan Helpline can be reached at 0800 86677.