David Hyde: Unpaid UN intern forced to live in a tent has resigned

The 22-year-old was camped on a patch of grass because of Geneva's sky-high rents

Lake Geneva (getty)

An unpaid UN intern has resigned following international uproar over the revelation he was living in a tent because he could not afford Geneva's sky-high rents.

David Hyde, 22, from Christchurch, New Zealand, announced his decision after it emerged that he was living on a patch of grass near the organisation's base in the Swiss city, which has some of the highest rents in the world.

The international relations graduate had travelled 11,000 miles after securing the placement, but soon wound up on a patch of grass on the banks of Lake Geneva - near the UN’s private beach club and the city’s botanical garden - in a tent that was “not the most waterproof”.

Speaking at the gates of the UN’s European HQ, Mr Hyde said: “I’m announcing my resignation from the United Nations internship programme.

“It’s my own decision and I chose to resign because I felt that it would be too difficult to continue to focus on my work as an intern at this stage.”

The conditions of the unpaid internship, and his circumstances, meant that sleeping in a small, blue tent – complete with camping stove and foam mattress – “made it the only real possibility that I could see”, Mr Hyde had said.

He reiterated to The Guardian that “no person forced me to sleep in a tent” and that he was fully aware that the UN was offering “no wage or stipend, no transport help, no food allowance, no health assistance”.

But he added: “Call me young and call me idealistic but I don’t think this is a fair system.”

Lake Geneva (getty)

According to the Tribune de Geneve newspaper, which broke the story, Mr Hyde had received a number of offers of accommodation – offers he apparently turned down – and his parents were unaware that he was camping.

Mr Hyde told reporters he had previously been turned down for internships by the UN after he was unable to say how he could support himself. But when he did not tell the truth, he was accepted, he said.

An UN spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, told the Local that a general assembly resolution barred the organisation from paying interns.