Sweden announced new restrictions on asylum-seeking refugees this week, but one of the country’s largest retailers is looking to provide aid to the the millions of people displaced by war and violence.
The furniture store announced it would be donating proceeds from its LED products to the UN’s campaign.
For every LED item sold online or in any of its locations across the globe, Ikea plans to donate Є1 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the furniture and housewares company said this week.
The Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign, now in its third iteration, is set to run between Nov. 29 and Dec. 19 and applies to all lamps or bulbs in any of Ikea’s 315 stories in 27 countries. The previous two campaigns raised more than $19.1 million for refugees living in camps in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, according to Ikea’s website.
Nearly 60 million people were displaced around the world in 2014 alone, marking an increase of 8.3 million from the previous year and signaling the largest influx of refugees since World War II, according to UNHCR. The increase in global displacement has largely been driven by the war in Syria, which has forced more than 12 million to flee, half of whom are children. The UNHCR has registered more than 4 million Syrian refugees, mostly in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Sweden, which previously had an “open door” policy and took in about 10,000 refugees a week—among the highest proportions of any European country—announced Tuesday that it would impose identity checks and restrict access to hosting refugee families. The reversal came two weeks after the country imposed stricter border controls.
