Do you have a vacant room in your flat or home?

Register it with us and rent it to a refugee or asylum seeker in your country! No matter whether you live in a student flat, flatshare, or single-family home, we will match you with a displaced person looking for accommodations in your area. Rent and additional costs will be covered whenever necessary, so there’s no need to worry about financing if you are unable to offer your room rent-free. Our highly qualified team will match you with a refugee who shares your interests and shared living expectations – just like a normal flatmate.

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Do you want to get involved with our work?

If you’d like to support refugees and asylum seekers in finding local accommodations in your country, join our volunteer team! Our volunteers are directly involved in matching hosts and refugees, organising fundraising events, promoting our work at various conferences around the world, supporting our IT infrastructure, writing newsletters, and more. We are also always open to innovation and we welcome volunteers with a wide range of skills.

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The Idea

The accommodation of refugees in camps is a harmful practice that cultivates exclusion and stigmatisation in host societies, and conditions in these mass accommodations are often substandard and inhumane. Our mission as an organisation is to foster a global culture that opens its doors to displaced persons by providing access to private housing alternatives with local hosts. By living with locals, refugees have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the language, build out social networks in the host country, and establish relationships with local communities. We believe that all people deserve the right to a welcoming, stable housing environment free from prejudice and stigma, and our Refugees Welcome chapters are working to make this a reality for refugees and asylum seekers around the world.

Our housing match model is highly successful in the countries in which we operate: our team in Spain reports that roughly 88% of those who found housing through their services in 2021 feel that their language skills have improved as a direct result of living with locals, and 94% say that living with locals has helped them adapt to their new country. With over 2,500 refugees housed in total since our foundation in 2014, results are similarly successful in all countries in which we operate.

To get more information about how we work read our report “How private accommodation for refugees works sustainably” written by Smaranda Krings and Carla Szyszkowitz in the framework of an AMIF-funded project.

Where we are active

Can’t find your country on the map?

Get in touch with us if you’d be interested in launching a Refugees Welcome team in your country! We will provide guidance every step of the way and offer extensive resources to help you get started. If you’re interested in founding a chapter, send us an email at hi[@]refugees-welcome.net.

Statistics

We have been facilitating private housing for refugees with local hosts as an alternative to camps since 2014. Today we celebrate:

2500+ refugees housed

450+ volunteers

12 hosting countries

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Internship Program at Refugees Welcome International (RWI) 

Update 11th of April 2024: Currently not processing new internship applications. As an intern at Refugees Welcome International (RWI), you will gain insights into the workings of an international network represented in twelve different countries around the world. You will gain ha…

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The ChangeNOW Summit 2022!

Refugees Welcome International is proud to have been selected for the ChangeNOW Summit 2022 in Paris, France. At the summit we had the chance to present our work and exchange ideas with other changemakers who are working on creating positive impact.  ChangeNOW is a three-day…

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The Week of Living Together 2022!

Already for the second time the Refugees Welcome Spain team held the annual Week of Living Together. Celebrating the International Day of Living Together in Peace on May 16th, the Spanish team organised a whole week of fun and informative activities.  Events took place in va…

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Friends and partner initiatives