The United Nations has revealed that it employed more than 4,000 unpaid interns in the last year for which data is available, as it pledged to review its internships policy in the wake of outrage about the unpaid graduate who said he was left with no option but to live in a tent in Geneva.



Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN’s secretary general, admitted that the current system for obtaining work experience “clearly disqualifies people” and “basically allows the UN to have people who can afford it”.

The issue of unpaid work experience was highlighted by the plight of David Hyde, 22, who resigned from his post in Geneva after revelations about his sleeping arrangements caused uproar.

Hyde, who had flown 11,000 miles from New Zealand to take up an internship, said accommodation costs in the Swiss city were unaffordable. Images of the international relations graduate – standing in an immaculate suit, UN badge around his neck, next to a small, blue tent and rolled-up foam mattress by Lake Geneva – had circulated on social media.

According to the latest UN staff data available, for the year 2012-13, 4,018 unpaid interns worked across all the agency’s departments, 68% of whom were women.



Dujarric said the competitive roles typically last for two months, with the chance of extending the time by an extra month, and involve attending important meetings, drafting notes and participating in general office work.

He said there can be opportunities to work in offices from New York to Bangkok, and Nairobi to Geneva.

The number of UN interns has fallen over the past decade as rules and regulations have been tightened and all internship appointments must now be made through human resources, according to Dujarric.

When asked if the UN would change its policy not to pay interns in the light of the publicity over Hyde, he said: “Yes, I think it’s obviously a discussion that will be had internally here.

“It has to do with the member states, and the general assembly, and the budget that’s given to us, and how we are able to use that that budget.

“When I take on interns I always tell them, although internship is full time, we are flexible in terms of allowing them to take time during the day if they need to get some sort of a job that pays them some money.”

In the interim, he said, those who apply for positions need to fully understand the terms of the internship.



However, UN organisations that are not part of the secretariat can make their own rules about paying interns – such as the International Labour Organisation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Fund for Agricultural Development – and pay some sort of remuneration, according to Ahmad Fawzi, the director of the UN Information Service in Geneva.

Matthew Hamilton, the founder of the campaign group Unpaid is Unfair, said of the policy: “It obviously discriminates against anyone who cannot afford to work for free, in particular people from the developing world.”

He said unpaid interns had to figure out how to pay for housing and food, health insurance and even visas. Hamilton said: “It can easily cost $10,000–$20,000 to do an unpaid internship for six months once you factor in all of those costs. It’s completely absurd to expect young people to front those costs.”

Hamilton, who lived off his university stipend for his masters degree while on the UN internship programme, said: “I’ve heard stories from interns who sacrificed their life savings to do an internship at the UN, only to find that there is no paid job offered to them down the road.”

Ian Richards, the president of UN International Staff Unions, said in a statement that the global body needed “the brightest minds, not those with the deepest pockets, to live in expensive cities like New York and Geneva”.



He said: “By banning payment of interns, the general assembly makes it harder for the UN to attract interns from developing countries, of which there are currently two out of 162 in Geneva.”

Richards said the UN has just agreed on a set of ambitious development goals to accomplish by 2030, adding: “It needs young people within its ranks from all countries.”