On Wednesday, the United Nations refugee agency warned that humanitarian agencies are facing dire funding shortages to address a multitude of global crises, saying it alone needed $400 million by the end of the year.
Addressing the opening of the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi called on donors to strengthen their support.
“Many humanitarian organizations are facing severe funding challenges,” he said, pointing out that “UNHCR alone is lacking $400 million to end the year with the minimum of needed resources.”
That, he said, was “a shortfall we have not experienced in years, and we are all looking with much concern at 2024.”
From Russia’s war in Ukraine, the civil war in Sudan and a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, conflicts and crises had fueled record displacement even before the Gaza war erupted.
The UNHCR confirmed that there were more than 114 million displaced people globally by the end of September, a record number.
The number of refugees worldwide has doubled over the past seven years, reaching 36.4 million by mid-2023, also a record number. This represents a 3% increase compared to the end of 2022.
Grandi emphasized, “A major human catastrophe is unfolding in the Gaza Strip,” Grandi warned, lamenting that “so far the Security Council has failed to stop the violence,” expecting “more casualties and worsening civilian suffering, in addition to new displacement that threatens the region.”
He pointed to the millions displaced by conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan, the plight of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, and the millions who have fled due to conflict and insecurity in Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and across the Sahel.
Grandi called for “solidarity” in facing refugee crises.
