UNHCR chief warns refugee protection system is buckling under funding cuts

With 117 million men, women and children now forced from their homes, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Barham Salih has warned that the global support system for asylum-seekers is at risk of buckling, as the agency has received only $3 billion of the $8.5 billion it needs this year, according to UN News. Speaking on 12 October 2026 in his first keynote address to UNHCR’s Executive Committee meeting in Geneva, Mr. Salih stressed that the world’s most vulnerable are going without the help they need. He cautioned that deep funding cuts are straining the post-Second World War pledge that people fleeing persecution should be protected and not returned to places where they might be in danger.

UNHCR was created after the Second World War to safeguard people fleeing persecution, with the commitment that they should not be sent back to places where they might face danger. That foundational pledge is now under strain as deep funding cuts take effect across operations worldwide. Mr. Salih described the past year at the agency as “exceptionally difficult,” marked by the departure of 8,000 staff since 2024. He noted that countries hosting refugees for decades are frustrated at the lack of international solidarity. Refugees themselves are increasingly afraid for their safety amid the deep cuts to assistance.

In Sudan, insufficient funding threatens specialized medical care, legal assistance and psychological support for more than 50,000 survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. In Chad, services for thousands of unaccompanied and separated children, as well as children with specific protection needs, are at risk. In Ethiopia, refugee registration has been halted for tens of thousands of people arriving from South Sudan and Eritrea, with hundreds of thousands more awaiting verification and integration into the national identification system. So far in 2026, UNHCR has responded to 22 emergencies in 18 countries, from Yemen to the Horn of Africa and from Sudan to the Sahel. Despite growing humanitarian needs, the agency has received less than one third of its funding requirement for this year.

Mr. Salih said women and girls are more exposed to violence and exploitation, children are losing years of education, and persons with disabilities face protection barriers.

“There is…a difference between doing more with less and being asked to do the impossible,” he said. “Efficiency has limits. There comes a point when greater efficiency cannot compensate for fewer resources. When funding falls below that point, the consequences are not abstract, they are borne by people who depend on it,” he insisted. At the end of last month, Mr. Salih – a former Kurdish politician and President of Iraq – told the Security Council that the situation for refugees today was “genuinely, truly, inhumane.”

Speaking in Geneva, the UNHCR chief highlighted an initiative launched earlier this year that aims to halve the number of refugees living in protracted displacement and depending on humanitarian assistance by 2035. Nearly 14.5 million refugees in low and middle-income countries currently rely on aid to meet their basic requirements.

“We cannot claim success simply because assistance has been reduced or responsibility has been transferred to host countries,” he added. “Success is measured by whether people’s lives have genuinely improved and whether they have become self-reliant and active contributors to their communities.” Mr. Salih urged solidarity and empathy with asylum-seekers, adding: “None of us knows who may be forced to flee tomorrow, or who may be called upon to offer refuge.”