29 September :Around 8.3 million refugees and displaced people worldwide are at risk of losing vital assistance as donor funding declines, the UN refugee agency UNHCR has warned.
In a report published on Tuesday, the agency said its ability to provide protection and assistance to refugees, internally displaced people and stateless persons was steadily weakening because of a prolonged funding crisis.
UNHCR received $5.2 billion in donations in 2024. That figure fell to $3.9 billion in 2025. At the same time, the number of people requiring humanitarian assistance has reached its highest level on record.
This year, UNHCR needs at least $8.5 billion to carry out its refugee protection and assistance programmes. However, by July, the agency had received only $2.7 billion, equivalent to 32% of the required funding. As a result, around 8.3 million displaced people are at risk of being left without UNHCR assistance.
The agency said declining funding was forcing aid and protection programmes in major refugee-hosting areas around the world to shrink. Although UNHCR has introduced reforms and reprioritised activities to keep essential operations running, the prolonged funding gap is already affecting programmes on the ground.
Dominique Hyde, Director of UNHCR’s Division of External Relations, warned that once protection systems fall below a certain threshold, they could collapse entirely rather than gradually deteriorate.
“In that situation, it is not just that fewer people will receive services; critical assistance programmes themselves could be forced to shut down,” Hyde said.
She warned that such a breakdown could leave the world’s most vulnerable people without the protection and support they urgently need.