Hardship Level (not applicable for home-based)

A (least hardship)

Family

Internship

2025-03-03

February 5, 2025

Title: Protection Intern
Working Unit: Protection Team
Duty Station: Seoul, Republic of Korea
Duration: Six months
Contract Type: Internship

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering a full-time internship within the Protection Team in UNHCR Korea.

Established in December 1950, UNHCR is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for asylum seekers, refugees, returnees, internally displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. UNHCR currently operates in over 130 countries, using its long expertise to protect and care for millions.

Organizational Context
The role of UNHCR Korea is to engage with various stakeholders including the Government, the National Human Rights Commission, Civil Society Organizations, and the media to improve the domestic asylum system and treatment of asylum-seekers and refugees so that they can fully exercise their rights, including the principle of non-refoulement.

Position
The Protection Intern supports the team’s effort in engaging in advocacy, training, and strengthening capacity of the national refugee and asylum system. The intern also supports monitoring protection standards, operational procedures and practices in protection delivery in line with international standards.

The intern selected to work in this office are expected to show adaptability, flexibility, openness, team spirit, eagerness to learn and to contribute.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of UNHCR Korea Protection Team, Protection Intern supports:

• Provision of information to forcibly displaced and stateless people: support in providing information to forcibly displaced and stateless people via telephone calls, in-person counselling and emails
• Support in communication with various stakeholders such as NGOs and government counterparts.
• Researching: conduct research on various protection-related information including Country of Origin Information (COIs)
• Translations: UNHCR documents, news articles, information for Persons under UNHCR’s Mandate
• Provide support for capacity-building training for government officers conducting Refugee Status Determination
• Participation in meetings and taking meeting notes
• Accompanying staff members to meetings and taking notes and/or interpreting

Further to the tasks mentioned above, other tasks may also be added, according to interest and capability of the intern. The work will be distributed according to the intern’s capability and the office’s workload as needed.

Essential minimum qualifications required
In order to be considered for an internship, candidates must meet following eligibility criteria:
• Be either a recent graduate (having completed their studies within two years of
applying) or a current student in a graduate/undergraduate school programme from a university or higher education facility accredited by UNESCO; and
• Have completed at least two years of undergraduate studies in a field relevant or of interest to the work of UNHCR
Please note that candidates who have immediate family members (father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister) working as staff members of UNHCR are not eligible to apply.

Locations
The successful candidate will be based with the Protection Team in Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Conditions
The internship is associated with an internship agreement for 6 months. It is a full-time role with working hours starting from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Monday to Friday (40 hours per week).

The UNHCR workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages and opinions. UNHCR seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity.

UNHCR does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, travelling, processing or training.

We welcome applications from candidates with a refugee or stateless background.

Standard Job Description

Required Languages

Korean

,

English

,

Desired Languages

,

,

Additional Qualifications

Skills

Education

High School (Required)

Certifications

Other information

This position doesn’t require a functional clearance

Home-Based

No

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements