The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has mothballed 10,000 of IKEA's award-winning refugee shelters over concerns about the product's vulnerability to fire.
Only 5,000 of the 15,000 shelters that UNHCR bought in 2015 have been deployed, meaning that two thirds of all shelters manufactured, worth a total of $12.5 million, have yet to be used.
The rest have remained in depots while it carried out an investigation into fire safety and other problems, UNCHR told Dezeen.
The admission comes two days after Better Shelter, the Swedish social entrepreneur that produces the shelters, told Dezeen that a new version of the shelter would be launched this year, addressing a range of design flaws had been identified with the first version. "In late 2015 the Swiss and German authorities raised concerns around the fire safety of the shelter," said Tapio Vahtola, who leads the Strategic Partnerships department at the UNHCR.
"Safety is of course an absolute priority and following the concerns raised, UNHCR and Better Shelter engaged in a comprehensive process of analysing the results and ensuring the safety of the product through improving the panel design."
The new version of the shelter will feature stronger, lighter and cheaper cladding panels while existing units will now be deployed according to stricter spacing guidelines.
"We are introducing guidelines in order to improve the safety distance between units in camp settings and to minimise...