UNHCR WARNS 8.3 MILLION DISPLACED PEOPLE COULD LOSE VITAL AID AMID FUNDING CRUNCH

Thu 01 October 2026:

Agency says protection systems risk collapsing as budget shortfall widens

Nearly 8.3 million refugees and other forcibly displaced people risk losing vital assistance due to “continued severe funding cuts,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday.

“UNHCR’s ability to protect and assist refugees, internally displaced people and stateless people is being eroded by a sustained and worsening funding shortfall,” said the agency in a recent report.

Funding falls far short of needs

Available funding fell 24 percent from 5.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2024 to 3.9 billion dollars in 2025. By the end of July 2026, UNHCR had received only 32 percent of the 8.5 billion dollars it needed for the year, leaving a funding gap of 5.8 billion dollars, the agency said.

The number of people under UNHCR’s mandate is projected to rise to 131.2 million by the end of 2026, it added.

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Services at risk of stopping altogether

“Protection cannot be reduced indefinitely without systems collapsing. 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,” said Dominique Hyde, UNHCR’s director of external relations.

Citing several countries under strain, the agency said 319,000 refugees in Chad face registration delays, while 200,000 women and girls risk losing access to safe spaces and prevention programs and around 233,000 children could lose child protection services.

In Ethiopia, child protection coverage in some areas has fallen by as much as 85 percent. In Sudan, tens of thousands of survivors of sexual violence and children at serious risk could lose access to critical protection services.

Cuts already reshaping operations

Faced with sharply declining resources, the agency said it had undertaken significant and difficult reforms, including cutting its workforce by 33 percent in 2025, closing offices in 140 locations worldwide and discontinuing operations in 15 countries compared with 2024. Yet the prolonged funding shortfall is now affecting even UNHCR’s highest-priority protection and solutions work, it said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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