• The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has launched a $10 billion appeal for 2025 to meet critical needs and implement sustainable solutions for millions of refugees, displaced persons and stateless people worldwide.

• The agency’s appeal comes amid escalating humanitarian crises, as conflict, persecution and the growing impacts of climate change continue to force millions from their homes.

• It aims to support more than 139 million refugees and other vulnerable groups in some 136 countries and territories.

• The appeal focuses on three primary areas — emergency response, inclusion, and long-term solutions.

• Of the 139.3 million targeted beneficiaries, 34 million (24 per cent) are refugees, 68 million (48 per cent) internally displaced, 12 million are returnees, and about 4.5 million are stateless people under the agency’s mandate.

• Around $2.1 is required for UNHCR programmes in the Middle East and North Africa, $1.2 billion in Europe, $957 million in Asia and the Pacific, and $815 million in the Americas.

• Across the African continent, $2.1 billion is needed in East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes, $1.2 billion in West and Central Africa and $451 million in Southern Africa.

• The appeal also goes beyond immediate assistance, calling for sustainable approaches that integrate displaced individuals into local and national systems.

Who is a refugee?

• Refugees are people forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as a result of who they are, what they believe in or say, or because of armed conflict, violence or serious public disorder.

• Many have been forced to flee with little more than the clothes on their back, leaving behind their homes, possessions, jobs and loved ones. 

• They may have suffered human rights violations, been injured in their flight, or seen family members or friends killed or attacked.

• Today, there are 43.4 million refugees globally. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, is mandated to protect over 30 million refugees and 5.8 million other people in need of international protection. 

• A further 6 million Palestine refugees are supported by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which was set up in 1949 to care for displaced Palestinians.

UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)

• The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. 

• UNHCR emerged in the wake of World War II to help millions of Europeans displaced by the conflict. 

• The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly with a three-year mandate to complete its work and then disband. 

• On July 28, 1951, the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees — the legal foundation of helping refugees and the basic statute guiding UNHCR’s work — was adopted.

• In 1954, UNHCR won the Nobel Peace Prize for its groundbreaking work in Europe.

• In 1981, it again won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to repatriate refugees in Asia, Africa and Latin America in the 1970s.

• The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol are the key legal documents that form the basis of UNHCR’s work.

• They define the term ‘refugee’ and outline their rights and the international standards of treatment for their protection.

• UNHCR now has 18,879 personnel working in 137 countries. It has helped more than 50 million refugees to successfully restart their lives, and continue to protect and provide support for the 89.3 million people currently displaced.

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