The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has sounded the alarm over a severe humanitarian crisis, warning that the global system is in crisis due to a lack of funding to support the world’s 122.1 million displaced people. According to Katharina Thote, the UNHCR’s representative in Germany, the humanitarian system is facing a crisis, with a record number of displaced individuals, but a historically low amount of funding per capita.
Since 2015, the number of displaced people has doubled, but the available funding has not kept pace, with a mere few euros per capita and year making a life-or-death difference. The UNHCR relies on voluntary contributions from governments, international actors, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund and private foundations and individuals.
The war in Sudan has been identified as the primary cause of the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 14.3 million people forced to flee, according to the UNHCR’s “Global Trends” report, released globally today. While a small portion of these refugees arrive in Europe, two-thirds flee to a neighboring country and 60 percent do not leave their homeland.
In Germany, the number of new asylum applications has decreased by around 30 percent. The UNHCR also predicts a decline in global refugee numbers by 2025, with two million Syrians already having returned to their homeland. By the end of April, the number of displaced people worldwide had already dropped to 122.1 million.