75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention: Insights from the UNHCR Global Trends report

On 11 June 2026, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) presented its new Global Trends report. Ten key findings from the report:

1. First decline in the number of people forcibly displaced in a decade: By the end of 2025, a total of 117.8 million people – equivalent to one in 70 people worldwide – were forcibly displaced. This represents a decrease of 5.4 million people, or 4.4 per cent, compared to the previous year. An estimated 45 million (39 per cent) of all displaced people worldwide were children (who make up 29 per cent of the world’s population), 50 per cent were women and girls. In particular, the numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) declined. In 2025, there were 41.6 million refugees. This figure includes 28.5 million refugees under the mandate of the UNHCR (-8.1 per cent), in addition to 6 million refugees under the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and 7.2 million people in need of international protection. The number of IDPs – those displaced by conflict or violence within their own country – fell to 68.7 million, a decrease of 6.7 per cent over the course of a year. A further 9 million people were asylum seekers (+7.7 per cent) and at least 4.5 million (+2.7 per cent) were stateless.

2. Many returns under adverse circumstances, risk for renewed displacement remains high: The largest group of returnees last year comprised 2.9 million Afghans (1.9 million of whom were refugees), four-fifths of whom were women and children. As a result, the number of Afghan refugees and Afghans enjoying international protection fell by 36 per cent compared to the previous year. However, their return was mostly involuntary in nature or brought about under pressure from the host countries, in particular the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan. This trend continued until May 2026 and was fueled not least by the renewed outbreak of the conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran, the USA and Israel. For more than a decade, Syria was regarded as one of the world’s largest displacement crises. Following the fall of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad, 1.3 million Syrians returned from abroad and 2 million internally displaced persons returned last year. Refugees returned primarily from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. The number of Syrian refugees, which once stood at 6 million, thus fell to 4.9 million (-18 per cent) by the end of 2025. At the same time, renewed fighting – particularly in the north and south of Syria and in the coastal regions – led to several thousand civilian casualties in 2025 and triggered new waves of displacement, particularly to Lebanon. Due to the dramatically deteriorating protection situation in Lebanon itself, over half a million people had returned to Syria by May 2026. The country continues to be regarded as one of the world’s major humanitarian crises. 15.6 million people, approximately 61 per cent of the total population, are dependent on humanitarian aid. More than half a million Sudanese who had fled to Egypt or South Sudan to escape the war in Sudan, as well as around 2.9 million internally displaced persons, also returned last year to areas where the fighting had subsided. There they found basic services largely non-functional, infrastructure heavily degraded and major urban areas contaminated by explosive ordnance. The continuing rise in violence and insecurity in Sudan also led to the return of approximately 199,300 South Sudanese in 2025, and a further 42,400 people in 2026. This group had originally fled to the neighbouring country to escape violence in their country of origin, South Sudan. Around 139,300 Ukrainians from Poland, Germany and Bulgaria decided to return to their home country last year despite the ongoing hostilities. An estimated 2 per cent of all returnees travelled voluntarily back to Burundi, the Central African Republic, Nigeria and Rwanda. For the majority of returnees, however, the returns were largely involuntary and took place under adverse circumstances, under pressure and to extremely fragile contexts. With limited prospects for reintegration, the risk of renewed displacement therefore remains high. Hence, substantial investment in reintegration is needed, i.a. support in restoring livelihoods or the provision of basic services on the ground. Irrespective of this, the UNHCR once again reminded states in its report to fulfil their international protection obligations, such as the principle of non-refoulement, access to territory and fair asylum procedures. Furthermore, it stated that measures leading to involuntary return should be avoided as long as the need for international protection persists.

Read the full report here.