By Jaya Ramachandran
GENEVA | 11 December 2024 (IDN) — A record number of armed conflicts and increased frequency and severity of climate-induced disasters are set to force a staggering 305 million people seek “urgent humanitarian assistance and protection” in 2025. 190 million of them will be facing “life-threatening” needs. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has, therefore, urged the international community for US$47 billion to deliver life-saving aid to people in 32 countries and nine regions hosting refugees.
Launching the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) in Geneva on 4 December, Mr Tom Fletcher, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that the world is on fire, and that the main culprits are both man-made.
The first culprit, he said, is conflicts, which are lasting longer and are hitting children particularly hard. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), nearly 123 million people were driven from their homes by conflict this year.
Reset the world’s relationship with people in direst need
The second culprit, Fletcher said, is the climate emergency, with the most vulnerable people on the planet shouldering the lion’s share of the impacts, and called for underscoring that we need to reset our relationship with those in greatest need on the planet.
“In a world on fire, the most vulnerable—children, women, people with disabilities and the poor—are paying the heaviest price,” added Mr Fletcher. “We must reset the world’s relationship with people in direst need,” he urged. “Their voices and agency must be at the heart of our response. We need a new level of global solidarity to fully fund these appeals, and bold political action to uphold international law. The humanitarian community is ready to deliver—for the war-weary survivor, the displaced family, the hungry child. We must make and win afresh the argument for humanity.”
Ms Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator also launched the appeal in Kuwait City, She was joined in Nairobi by Mr Edem Wosornu, OCHA’s Director for Operations and Advocacy.
The GHO for 2025 outlines carefully prioritized response plans, uniting over 1,500 humanitarian partners to provide critical assistance to 190 million people. Despite donors’ longstanding generosity, funding shortfalls persist. By November 2024, only 43 per cent of the $50 billion appeal for that year had been met.
Underfunding
The consequences of underfunding are stark. 2024 saw an 80 per cent reduction in food assistance in Syria; cuts to protection services in Myanmar; diminished water and sanitation aid in cholera-prone Yemen; and escalating hunger in Chad.
However, the single most important barrier for assisting and protecting people in armed conflicts is widespread violation of international humanitarian law. 2024 is already the deadliest year for humanitarian workers, surpassing last year’s death toll of 280. The vast majority of casualties are national aid workers.
Yet, despite these challenges, humanitarian agencies reached nearly 116 million people in 2024, delivering vital food, shelter, healthcare, education and protection services.
Almost 2.9 million refugees will need resettlement in 2025, according to the UNHCR. Resettlement needs continue to grow year by year. They are expected to increase by approximately half a million compared to 2024, and more than double compared to 2021.
Resettlement
The Asia and Pacific region continues to have the largest resettlement needs globally, with 776,500 refugees, an increase by about 6 per cent compared to 2024. This reflects the high resettlement needs of Afghan refugees (over half a million) as well as of Rohingya refugees, two increasingly protracted situations.
Resettlement needs in the Middle East and North Africa region increased by about 50 per cent, now reaching 703,700, due to growing economic challenges and increased protection risks such as child labour, exploitation and deportation. The needs in 2025 are marked by a notable increase of resettlement needs in Lebanon by approximately 200,000 refugees.
In the East and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes region, 601,300 refugees are projected to be in need ofresettlement, as countries of asylum are facing increasing pressure caused by new forced displacement,climate change, and economic shocks.
The outbreak of the new crisis in Sudan has led to a significant increase of resettlement needs in West andCentral Africa by almost 60 per cent, reaching 178,900 refugees in need.
Resettlement needs in the Americas (179,600) also sharply increased, by 70 per cent, a reflection of the unprecedented level of forced displacement in the region, particularly through movements from South America to northern countries, crossing the Darién Gap.
UNHCR also projects that 350,600 refugees will need resettlement from Europe (in Türkiye).
In the Southern Africa region, 125,300 refugees are projected to need resettlement, mostly from the CentralAfrican Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Syrians continue to be the largest refugee population in need of resettlement, with close to 933,000 refugees, followed by refugees from Afghanistan (558,000), South Sudan (242,000), Myanmar (226,000), Sudan(172,000) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (158,000).
Resettlement activities are enabled and supported by a multiplicity of organizations, partnerships and platforms that bring together UNHCR, national, regional and local governments as well as civil society. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play an important role in identifying vulnerable refugees in need of protection and referring them to UNHCR for further assessment. In some cases, NGOs are authorized by States to make direct referrals to resettlement countries.
The Equitable Resettlement Access Consortium (ERAC), for example, is constituted of NGOs which are eligible to make resettlement referrals to the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) andcontributed to this publication through a section dedicated to its work. NGO referrals to States complement UNHCR submissions, particularly when made from locations without permanent resettlement programmes or where specific refugee populations face barriers to accessing traditional resettlement pathways.
In 2023, UNHCR offices around the globe made resettlement submissions for 155,486 refugees located in 96countries of asylum, to 24 resettlement States, and thereby increased UNHCR’s submissions by 33 per centcompared to Among those, 1,485 submissions were made under the global unallocated quotas, whichare provided by some States without predetermined geographical location, and offer expedited processing so that refugees facing severe protection risks or with critical medical conditions across the globe find a safe solution promptly.
During 2023, 96,311 refugees departed on resettlement, a notable increase by 65 per cent compared to 2022, close to the target of 100,000 set in the Third Country Solutions for Refugees: Roadmap 2030 (‘the 2030 Roadmap’). The scale, accessibility and impact of resettlement, however, continues to be hindered byincreasingly restrictive criteria imposed by some States, limited flexibility to use remote processing methodologies, limitations to reception capacity partly as a result of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine andAfghanistan as well as the ongoing political and security situation in several parts of the world leading to, for example, selection mission cancellations.
In December 2023, the international community met in Geneva for the Global Refugee Forum (GRF), the world’s largest international gathering on refugees. On this occasion, States, NGOs, international organizationsand other key stakeholders made 92 pledges that are specific to resettlement, and thereby reaffirmed theirsupport to this The Forum also demonstrated the commitment by many actors to strengthen meaningful refugee participation.
As highlighted in the 2030 Roadmap, a meaningful response to the growing resettlement needs requires predictable and scalable resettlement programmes, including places for urgent and emergency cases, as wellas the engagement of more resettlement The 2023 GRF provides a new momentum for the growth ofresettlement.
UNHCR therefore calls on all stakeholders to take the necessary steps leading to the materialization and sustainability of these pledges, to work collaboratively with likeminded partners, while engaging forcibly displaced persons as active and able participants in resettlement processes and [IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo: Displaced children in Burkina Faso access education through radio-based learning, funded by the Regional Humanitarian Fund, offering an alternative path to schooling. Credit: OCHA/Alassane Sarr
