Using the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention as its major tool, UNHCR in Central Europe is mandated to ensure the international legal protection of forcibly displaced people. It promotes their basic human rights and that they are not returned involuntarily to a territory where they could face persecution.

UNHCR works to ensure that asylum-seekers have access to safe territory and that asylum procedures are carried out in a fair and efficient way. The UN refugee agency strives to make sure reception conditions like the accommodation and the health care for new arrivals are acceptable and in line with international standards. 

Globally, UNHCR helps asylum-seekers and refugees find durable solutions to their plight: integration into the host society, return to their home country when the conditions permit to do so in safety and dignity or – where none of these solutions is possible - resettlement to a third country. 

Based on its mandates under two international Conventions for the stateless, UNHCR in Central Europe also works to ensure the legal protection of these people by lobbying for the development of proper national legal frameworks.

The UN Refugee Agency promotes international refugee agreements, helps states improve the fairness and efficiency of their asylum systems and acts as an international watchdog over refugee issues across the region.