Over 120 million forcibly displaced people in the world by UNHCR, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre 3:54pm 17th Jun, 2025   Statement by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi to the 76th session of the Executive Committee in Geneva, Switzerland. (Extract):    "In October 2015, exactly ten years ago, the Syrian refugee crisis was at its peak. The defining image of that time was that of little Alan Kurdi’s body lying lifeless on a beach. It was impossible then to imagine that, just over ten days ago, we would have reached the milestone of the one millionth Syrian refugee return.    During the same time, arguably because of the Syrian refugee crisis – particularly but not only in Europe – we have witnessed a growing backlash – manipulated and politicized, but no less real – against refugees, migrants, sometimes even foreigners.    To understand the state of asylum today – and I include the recent cuts in foreign aid budgets – it is important to place it within a significant dynamic of the last decade – the general disillusionment of people with the institutions that are meant to represent them.    There is a growing sense that new, simpler narratives are required to help explain our difficult and unstable world. This has implied setting aside approaches seen as no longer able to address the complex issues facing States and societies – approaches such as cooperation and compromise.    The very idea of multilateralism has therefore come under attack. The arguments themselves are not new: multilateralism is decried as bloated and inefficient. It is an infringement on State sovereignty. A relic of a past that no longer exists – all this despite the fact that multilateral institutions, despite their imperfections, have served to advance the interests of both powerful and less powerful countries.    But we can all see how the pendulum of State behaviour has swung away from cooperation toward a transactional kind of politics. We can see how power, and the belief that might makes right, is not only driving geopolitical decision-making but also and especially the manner in which wars are fought – within and between States.    The atrocities perpetrated in Gaza and the West Bank, in Ukraine, Sudan or Myanmar are evidence of the deliberate abandonment of norms in the name of violent power, conducted with complete impunity by States and non-State entities alike. People killed while waiting in line to receive food. Civilians massacred in camps where they fled for safety. Hospitals and schools destroyed. A record number of aid workers killed.    Parties to conflict do not even pretend anymore to abide by international humanitarian law, or by any set of rules. Instead, war and indiscriminate violence are portrayed as justifiable so long as military means are achieved – and norms be damned. No human cost is too high, no image of death or destruction too shocking. Let there be no mistake: the daily repetition of atrocities is intended to numb our conscience. To make us feel powerless.    But we are not. Our power is to maintain moral clarity and reaffirm fundamental humanitarian values – protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure, ensuring access to affected populations, securing the unimpeded provision of humanitarian aid. But we also have a duty to address the consequences of this violence. Forced displacement is one. And that is why UNHCR exists: to protect refugees and find solutions to their plight. That is our mission. The mandate given to us 75 years ago, still very relevant today. Perhaps more relevant than ever before.    The list of major emergencies of the last 10 years is long – I mentioned Syria already, to which we must add Myanmar, South Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine and Sudan, to name just a few ongoing ones. In Latin America and the Caribbean, complex crises give rise to complex displacement – of Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and others. Conflicts, aggravated by climate change and other factors, have generated protracted displacement situations in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.    Since 2015, the number of people forced to flee their homes because of war and persecution has virtually doubled, reaching 122 million. Forced displacement has also grown in speed and complexity.    The flight from Ukraine in 2022, following the full-scale Russian invasion, was the fastest large-scale displacement since World War Two, with millions seeking safety across borders or in safer parts of Ukraine in a few weeks.    In Sudan, the shifting front lines of a vicious conflict between forces vying for supremacy at the expense of their own people – coupled with the multiple armed factions operating outside centralized command structures – have exacted an enormous toll and resulted in a patchwork of refugee movements, both within and outside the country. And similar dynamics exist in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, in the Sahel and many other places.    The right to seek asylum was not invented 75 years ago. The moral obligation to provide refuge to those fleeing danger is enshrined in sacred texts across the world. Precisely because asylum is life-saving. That is what has happened in recent years in Uganda, Chad, Moldova or Bangladesh. These and other countries, by upholding asylum, have saved lives.    The modern expression of those principles is what States have codified in the 1951 Refugee Convention and its subsequent Protocol – in addition to several regional instruments.. These instruments were negotiated by States. They are not contrary to sovereignty. They are, in fact, instruments of State sovereignty.    Without question, States have the right to control their borders. The current asylum system is predicated on that. But States also have a shared responsibility to protect those fleeing for their lives. Sovereignty and the right to seek asylum are not incompatible. They are complementary. Asylum is not and never has been a vehicle for indiscriminate open-border advocacy.    Here I want to be clear. In an environment where everything is highly politicized, putting the Refugee Convention and the principle of asylum on the table would be a catastrophic error. It would lead us down blind alleys and, ultimately, it would make the problem more difficult to address.    And let me repeat something you have heard me say before, but is important in the context of this debate: the majority of the world’s refugees are not hosted in Europe, or in North America. Three-quarters are in low- or middle-income countries.    Any effort to reform the current system, must – in addition to keeping the protection of refugees front and center – take into account the reality of all States, especially those who have been the most generous hosts and often have scarce resources. Otherwise, we can only conclude that pressures to reform asylum are not made in good faith but represent yet another attack on international solidarity, at a time when many countries continue to welcome refugees.    I also want to address how incredibly damaging this year’s funding cuts have been. And I will be blunt. I don’t think this is simply a financial crisis. What we are facing – what has been imposed on the international aid system – are political choices with disastrous financial implications.    As things stand, we project that we will end 2025 with $3.9 billion in funds available, a decrease of $1.3 billion compared to 2024 – or roughly 25 per cent less. And the year is not over. The last time we had less than $4 billion was in 2015, when the number of forcibly displaced people was half of what it is today.    I can assure you that we are responding and preparing by ensuring maximum effectiveness in all areas of our work, but this cannot hide the fact that the impact of cuts has been devastating. No country, no sector, no partner has been spared. Critical programmes and life-saving activities had to be stopped.. Schools were closed. Food assistance decreased. Gender-based violence prevention work – stopped. Support to survivors of torture – stopped. Funds to help reduce statelessness further reduced. I could go on and on. This is what happens when you slash funding by over a billion dollars in a matter of weeks.    We have had to downscale our presence in 185 offices around the world.. Almost 5,000 UNHCR colleagues have already lost their jobs this year. This is more than a quarter of our entire workforce. And with more separations foreseen, that number is expected to grow.    We have been warning for months that by putting such pressures on the humanitarian system, you risk creating a domino effect of instability. To worsen the very displacement we are all working to resolve.."    http://www.unhcr.org/where-we-work/emergencies http://www.unhcr.org/news/speeches-and-statements/high-commissioner-s-opening-statement-76th-plenary-session-executive http://www.unhcr.org/media/brink-devastating-toll-aid-cuts-people-forced-flee http://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/number-people-uprooted-war-shocking-decade-high-levels-unhcr http://www.unhcr.org/global-trends http://www.nrc.no/feature/2025/a-global-displacement-crisis-as-the-world-abandons-aid http://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports-briefs/a-generational-collapse-tracking-the-toll-of-trumps-humanitarian-aid-cuts/ http://www.refugeesinternational.org/events-and-testimony/aid-cuts-one-year-on-local-solutions-to-indefensible-harm/    http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-75-keeping-our-collective-promises-alive http://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/unhcr-nansen-award-winners-show-compassion-refugees-alive-and-well http://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/unhcr-report-reveals-extreme-weather-driving-repeated-displacement-among http://www.unhcr.org/media/no-escape-ii-way-forward    June 2025    According to UNHCR’s annual Global Trends Report released today, there were 122.1 million forcibly displaced people by the end of April 2025, up from 120 million at the same time last year, representing around a decade of year-on-year increases in the number of refugees and others forced to flee their homes.    The main drivers of displacement remain large conflicts like Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine, and the continued failure to stop the fighting.    Whether this trend continues or reverses during the rest of 2025 will largely depend on whether peace or at least a cessation in fighting is possible to achieve, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Ukraine; whether the situation in South Sudan does not deteriorate further; whether conditions for return improve, in particular in Afghanistan and Syria; and how dire the impact of the current funding cuts will be on the capacity to address forced displacement situations around the world and create conducive conditions for a safe and dignified return.    Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said: “We are living in a time of intense volatility in international relations, with modern warfare creating a fragile, harrowing landscape marked by acute human suffering. We must redouble our efforts to search for peace and find long-lasting solutions for refugees and others forced to flee their homes.”    Forcibly displaced people include people displaced within their own country by conflict, which grew sharply by 6.3 million to 73.5 million at the end of 2024, and refugees fleeing their countries (42.7 million people).    Sudan became the world’s largest forced displacement situation with 14.3 million refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs), replacing Syria (13.5 million), and followed by Afghanistan (10.3 million) and Ukraine (8.8 million).    The report found that, contrary to widespread perceptions in wealthier regions, 67 per cent of refugees stay in neighbouring countries, with low and middle-income countries hosting 73 per cent of the world’s refugees. Indeed, 60 per cent of people forced to flee never leave their own country.    While the number of forcibly displaced people has almost doubled in the last decade, funding for UNHCR now stands at roughly the same level as in 2015 amid brutal and ongoing cuts to humanitarian aid. This situation is untenable, leaving refugees and others fleeing danger even more vulnerable.    UNHCR and the broader humanitarian community are facing detrimental funding cuts, that will severely impact millions of people globally.    Without sufficient funding, there will not be enough food assistance and basic shelter support for displaced people. Protection services, including safe spaces for refugee women and girls at risk of violence, are likely to be terminated. Communities that have generously hosted forcibly displaced people for years will be left without the support they need.    For the number of forcibly displaced people to reduce, meaningful progress is required on the root causes – conflict, disregard for the basic tenets of International Humanitarian Law, other forms of violence and persecution.    In the meantime, resources to meet urgent humanitarian needs, to support host countries, to protect people from the risks of dangerous onward movements and to help refugees and other forcibly displaced people find durable solutions are more essential than ever. The consequences of inaction will be borne by those who can least afford it.    http://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/number-people-uprooted-war-shocking-decade-high-levels-unhcr http://www.unhcr.org/global-trends http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/june/record-number-of-people-displaced-amid-funding-cuts http://www.unhcr.org/news/speeches-and-statements/statement-un-high-commissioner-refugees-filippo-grandi-security http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-funding-crunch-increases-risks-violence-danger-and-death-refugees http://www.wfp.org/news/refugees-kenya-risk-worsening-hunger-wfp-faces-critical-funding-shortfall http://www.wvi.org/publication/world-refugee-day/report-ration-cuts-2025    May 2025    The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) reached 83.4 million at the end of 2024, the highest figure ever recorded, according to the Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025 published today by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). This is equivalent to the population of Germany, and more than double the number from just six years ago.    “Internal displacement is where conflict, poverty and climate collide, hitting the most vulnerable the hardest,” said Alexandra Bilak, IDMC director. “These latest numbers prove that internal displacement is not just a humanitarian crisis; it’s a clear development and political challenge that requires far more attention than it currently receives.”    Nearly 90 per cent of IDPs, or 73.5 million people, were displaced by conflict and violence, an increase of 80 per cent in six years.    Ten countries had over 3 million IDPs from conflict and violence at the end of 2024, double the number from four years ago. Sudan alone hosted a record-breaking 11.6 million IDPs, the most ever recorded in a single country.    An additional 9.8 million people were living in internal displacement at the end of the year after being forced to flee by disasters, a 29 per cent increase over the previous year and more than double the number from just five years ago. Afghanistan (1.3 million) and Chad (1.2 million) together accounted for nearly a quarter of the total.    “Internal displacement rarely makes the headlines, but for those living it, the suffering can last for years. This year’s figures must act as a wake-up call for global solidarity. For how much longer will the number of people affected by internal displacement be allowed to grow and grow, as a result of a lack of ownership and leadership?” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.    “Every time humanitarian funding gets cut, another displaced person loses access to food, medicine, safety and hope. Over the past year, I’ve met with internally displaced families in DR Congo, in Palestine, and in Sudan, and listened to them speak about the devastating impact of displacement on their lives and their hopes for the future. The lack of progress is both a policy failure and a moral stain on humanity. Now is the time for governments to show political will and financial investments for lasting solutions to displacement.”    In many situations, people had to flee multiple times throughout the year as areas of conflict shifted, increasing their vulnerabilities and impeding their efforts to rebuild their lives.    Together, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Palestine and Sudan reported 12.3 million internal displacements, or forced movements of people, in 2024, nearly 60 per cent of the global total for conflict displacements.    Disasters triggered 45.8 million internal displacements in 2024, the highest annual figure since IDMC began monitoring disaster displacements in 2008 and more than double the annual average of the past decade.    The United States (US) alone accounted for nearly a quarter of global disaster displacement and was one of 29 countries and territories to record their highest figures on record.    Weather-related events, many intensified by climate change, triggered 99.5 per cent of disaster displacements during the year. Cyclones, such as hurricanes Helene and Milton that struck the US, and typhoon Yagi that struck numerous countries in East Asia, triggered 54 per cent of movements linked to disasters. Floods triggered another 42 per cent, with major events on every continent, from Chad to Brazil, Afghanistan to the Philippines and across Europe.    Many disaster displacements were pre-emptive evacuations that saved lives in the US, the Philippines, Bangladesh and elsewhere, showing that displacement can be a positive coping mechanism in disaster-prone countries. Of the 163 countries and territories reporting disaster displacements last year, 53 reported pre-emptive evacuations, but incomplete data means the true number is likely higher. Available evidence shows that without adequate support even pre-emptively evacuated people can remain displaced for prolonged periods.    The number of countries reporting both conflict and disaster displacement has tripled since 2009. More than three-quarters of people internally displaced by conflict and violence as of the end of 2024 were living in countries with high or very high vulnerability to climate change. These overlapping crises erode people’s ability to recover and stretch government resources.    “The cost of inaction is rising, and displaced people are paying the price,” said Bilak. “The data is clear, it’s now time to use it to prevent displacement, support recovery, and build resilience. Resolving displacement requires both immediate efforts to help people who have lost everything and investments to address underlying vulnerabilities, so people don't become displaced in the first place.”    http://www.internal-displacement.org/news/number-of-internally-displaced-people-tops-80-million-for-first-time/    The world’s most neglected displacement crises 2024 (Norwegian Refugee Council)    In 2024, the number of people displaced across the globe surged to double what it was ten years ago. At the same time, humanitarian funding covered just half of the rising needs.    Shifting domestic priorities, economic uncertainty and political fatigue have led to severe cuts in support for people affected by crisis and displacement. The world is in transition. But we must not accept this abandonment as a foregone conclusion. Displacement isn’t a distant crisis; it’s a shared responsibility. We must stand up and demand change.    Each year, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) publishes a report of the ten most neglected displacement crises in the world. The purpose is to focus on the plight of people whose suffering rarely makes international headlines, who receive little or no assistance, and crises that never become the centre of attention for international diplomacy efforts.    On top of chronic underfunding, the countries appearing in our list struggled to gain meaningful media traction. The lack of headlines mirrors a broader failure of political will. While needs escalated, efforts to address the root causes of these crises stalled or were simply abandoned.    Humanitarian access remained heavily restricted in several contexts due to insecurity, bureaucratic barriers, and the absence of diplomatic engagement. Millions of displaced people remain unseen, unsupported, and increasingly unreachable.    Climate change is hitting the most vulnerable the hardest. It is displacing people from their homes, destroying fragile livelihoods, and pushing communities already on the brink into even worse conditions. Prolonged droughts, erratic rainfall and increasingly frequent disasters are not only uprooting lives but also eroding food systems.    Crops are failing while the ground floods, livestock is dying under merciless heat, and access to water is becoming more unpredictable. Food insecurity has become one of the most devastating and immediate consequences of the climate crisis for displaced people.    As the world turns inward and humanitarian budgets shrink, the needs of people who have been displaced are growing louder, not quieter. The systems meant to respond are no longer fit for purpose, and our approach to crisis must evolve too.    In a world reshaping itself politically, economically and environmentally, this is a moment for us all to confront the structural failures driving neglect – to demand accountability and build a response that matches the rapid change.    If we choose to act, to invest, and to stand in solidarity, we can build a future where no-one is left behind. What we do this year will be remembered.    http://www.nrc.no/feature/2025/the-worlds-most-neglected-displacement-crises-in-2024/ http://www.nrc.no/longreads Visit the related web page
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