UNHCR: As Funding Cuts Bite, Some 11 Million People Are Losing Aid

GENEVA, July 19 (Bernama-WAM) -- Following major cuts to humanitarian budgets, up to 11.6 million refugees and others forced to flee risk losing access this year to direct humanitarian assistance from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, according to a report published Friday. 

 According to Emirates News Agency (WAM), the figure represents about one-third of those reached by the organisation last year.

This report highlights a deadly confluence of factors pummeling millions of refugees and displaced people: rising displacement, shrinking funding and political apathy. And women and children are, as ever, the hardest hit.

Altogether, US$1.4 billion of essential programmes are being cut or put on hold, according to the analysis of UNHCR programmes and funds received this year. Millions now face deteriorating living conditions, heightened risks of exploitation and abuse, and may be pushed into further displacement.

Behind these numbers are real lives, hanging in the balance. Families are seeing the support they relied on vanish, forced to choose between feeding their children, buying medicines or paying rent, while hope for a better future slips out of sight. Every sector and operation has been hit, and critical support is being suspended to keep life-saving aid going.

Financial aid and the delivery of emergency relief items have been cut by 60 per cent globally and shelter programmes have been critically diminished.

UNHCR funding requirements for 2025 are US$10.6 billion. At the midpoint of the year, only 23 per cent had been met.

Against this backdrop, UNHCR teams are focusing efforts on saving lives and protecting those forced to flee.

Should additional funding become available, UNHCR has the systems, partnerships and expertise to rapidly resume and scale up assistance.

-- BERNAMA-WAM