Worldwide, $ 1.4 billion in the agency’s programs are closed or suspended, Hcr said in a new report.
“We cannot stop water, you cannot stop sanitation, but we must make decisions when it happens, for example, to shelter,” said the director of UNHCR external relations, Dominique Hyde.
“We have people who arrive from Sudan daily, regions of Darfur … arriving in Chad, I cannot have shelter.”
In an urgent call for flexible funding from donors, Hyde noted that up to 11.6 million refugees and others are likely to lose access this year to direct the humanitarian aid of the UNHCR. The figure represents approximately a third of those affected by the organization last year.
On the border of Sudan-Chad, the United Nations agency is now unable to provide a “basic refuge” to more than six out of 10 refugees fleeing the conflict. Thousands of more vulnerable people have also been blocked in locations of remote borders in South Sudan. “If we just had a little more support, we could bring them to colonies,” She insisted.
Due to the financing cuts, basic activities have already been hardly affected. These include registration of refugees, child protection, legal advice and prevention and responses to sexist violence.
All sectors of help strike
In South Sudan, 75% of safe spaces for women and girls supported by UNHCR have closed. This means leaving up to 80,000 women and girls refugee without access to medical care, psychosocial support, legal aid, material support or income -generating activities. This includes survivors of sexual violence, noted the UNHCR.
“Behind these figures are a real life suspended in the scale”, ” Ms. Hyde said.
“Families see the support on which they leaning on Vanish, forced to choose between feeding their children, buying medication or paying rent, while hope for a better future slips out of sight. Each sector and operation have been affected and critical support is suspended to maintain rescue aid. ”
Afflux de Libya
Many of them affected by the war in Sudan have made the decision to pass from Chad and Egypt in Libya, in the hands of smugglers who dangerously overload boats with desperate people seeking to cross the Mediterranean Sea in Europe.
“What we observe now is that in terms of arrivals in Europe of … Sudanese refugees, [it] has has increased since the start of the year by around 170% compared to the first six months of 2024“Said the HCR spokesperson, Olga Sarrado.
Reduced support from Niger to Ukraine
In the camps welcoming the Rohingyas refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh, the education of some 230,000 children could now be suspended. Meanwhile, in Lebanon, “the UNHCR health program may be closed by the end of the year,” continued Ms. Hyde.
In Niger and other emergency circles, reductions in financial aid for the refuge have left families in overcrowded structures or at risk of homelessness. In Ukraine, financial aid has also been reduced, “leaving the uprooted families unable to afford rent, food or medical treatment,” she noted.
Assistance to the return of the Afghans has also become another victim of the reductions in the world aid. About 1.9 million Afghan nationals have returned home or have been forced since the start of the year, “but financial assistance for returnees is barely sufficient to afford food, not to mention rent, undergoing efforts to ensure stable reintegration,” said UNHCR.
Legal aid has stopped
Overall, several UNHCR operations have struck by serious financing gaps had to reduce investments in strengthening asylum systems and promoting regularization efforts.
In Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Mexico, any lack of prolonged legal status means prolonged insecurity for people in moving, said the United Nations agency. The result is the deepening of poverty “because refugees are excluded from formal employment and greater exposure to exploitation and abuse,” said Ms. Hyde.
About one of the 550 out of three offices in the world was affected by the cuts, Ms. Hyde told journalists in Geneva:
“We are not able to do so much contingency planning; What we are able to do is make decisions on priorities and, at this stage, priorities as I mentioned are dramatic. ”
For 2025, UNHCR needs $ 10.6 billion. Only 23% of this amount was provided.
“In this context, our teams focus on efforts to save lives and protect those who are forced to flee,” said Ms. Hyde. “If additional funding becomes available, UNHCR has systems, partnerships and expertise to resume and increase assistance quickly.”
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
