UNHCR funding cuts put millions of displaced people at risk

By Alexandra Sirgant and Linda Bordoni

Millions of refugees and internally displaced people risk losing access to essential protection and assistance as a severe funding shortfall forces the United Nations refugee agency to reduce its humanitarian operations worldwide.

Speaking to Vatican News, Sophie Magennis, Head of the Policy and Legal Support Unit at UNHCR’s Regional Representation for EU Affairs in Brussels, warned that the scale of the financial crisis is already threatening the agency’s ability to respond to the needs of people forced to flee their homes.

“Unfortunately, at UNHCR we have seen a reduction of 24% in our finances last year, and that’s a very significant reduction,” she said.

The agency has secured around $3 billion for its programmes this year, Magennis explained, but this represents just 35% of the resources needed to meet the needs identified through its humanitarian operations.

The consequences of that shortfall extend beyond the agency’s own capacity to deliver assistance. They also affect the countries hosting displaced people, many of which have limited resources of their own.

A double burden on struggling countries

“What’s important to keep in mind is that the vast majority of the world’s displaced people and refugees are hosted by the least well-off countries in the world,” Magennis said.

The reduction in funding therefore places a double burden on countries already struggling to provide for their own populations while offering shelter and protection to people fleeing conflict and persecution.

“The impact is both on our finances to support refugees and displaced people where they are, but also to support host countries,” she explained, stressing that financial assistance is essential to enable those countries to continue providing protection.

The human cost of underfunding

Magennis was speaking in the wake of the publication of a 26-page UNHCR report that outlines the impact of budget cuts on refugee registration, child protection programmes and services for survivors​of gender-based violence. The report, which seeks to draw attention to the potential consequences of the funding crisis, concludes that “Below a certain threshold, the system doesn’t shrink, it fails.”

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Reiterating that more than eight million refugees and internally displaced people are currently at risk of losing vital support, MaGennis noted that behind that figure are people whose access to protection can depend on services that are often taken for granted.

These include official registration and documentation, and pointing to the situation in Chad, where people continue to arrive after fleeing serious and ongoing violence in neighbouring Sudan, she said there are around 300,000 refugees in Chad waiting to be registered.

Without sufficient resources, she continued, UNHCR may be unable to proceed with their registration, and for people who have already been forced to leave their homes, the absence of official documentation can create further obstacles and expose them to additional risks.

“Registration is really important for refugees because it gives them access to documentation that they need to prove that they are people in need of protection,” Magennis said, adding that such documents “can reduce the risk, for example, of detention and other negative harms.”