Nearly 8.3 million refugees and other forcibly displaced people are at risk of losing critical support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as severe funding shortages weaken protection services worldwide.
In a report highlighting the impact of budget reductions, UNHCR said its ability to protect and assist refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs) and stateless people was being undermined by a prolonged and worsening funding gap, reports AFP.
The agency said its available funding dropped from $5.2 billion in 2024 to $3.9 billion in 2025, while the number of people requiring protection remained at historically high levels.
UNHCR said it needed $8.5 billion this year to support refugees and displaced populations, but had received only $2.7 billion, or 32 per cent of the required amount, by the end of July.
As a result, nearly 8.3 million forcibly displaced people are “at risk of losing access to UNHCR assistance”, the agency said.
“Continued severe funding cuts are pushing refugee support and protection structures towards breaking point in the world’s main displacement situations,” it added.
UNHCR said it had introduced reforms and prioritised essential programmes to protect its most critical operations. However, it warned that the scale and duration of the funding shortfall were now affecting even its highest-priority activities.
“Protection cannot be reduced indefinitely without systems collapsing,” said Dominique Hyde, UNHCR’s external relations chief.
“Below a certain threshold, services do not simply reach fewer people; they can stop functioning altogether, leaving those most at risk without the protection they need.”
The agency said funding shortages had already affected vulnerable communities in several countries.
In Chad, 319,000 refugees are facing delays in registration, leaving them without documentation needed to access services, while around 233,000 children could lose access to child protection support.
In Ethiopia, child protection coverage in some areas has declined by up to 85 per cent. In Sudan, tens of thousands of survivors of sexual violence and children facing serious risks could lose access to essential protection services, UNHCR warned.
“When registration stops or child protection services disappear, the very risks that people fled — violence, exploitation and abuse — reappear in displacement,” Hyde said.
Quarter of workforce cut
UNHCR said 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced at the end of 2025, down from a record 123.2 million in 2024.
Of the total displaced population, 35.6 million were refugees under UNHCR’s mandate, with two-thirds coming from Venezuela, Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan.
The funding crisis has also forced UNHCR to reduce its workforce. The agency cut nearly 5,000 jobs in 2025, representing more than a quarter of its employees.
The Geneva-based organisation said reductions in funding were limiting its efforts to help displaced people become less dependent on humanitarian aid.
In Iraq, up to 350,000 refugees and asylum seekers are at risk of losing access to economic inclusion programmes, it said.
UNHCR also warned that support for people returning to their home countries, either voluntarily or under pressure, was declining due to funding shortages.
In Syria, 162,500 vulnerable internally displaced people and returned refugees will not receive initial financial assistance unless additional funding arrives quickly, reducing their ability to rebuild their lives, the agency said.
