On 12 June 2025, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) presented its new global trends report which concentrates mostly on the developments in 2024 in which a total of 123.2 million people were displaced, 7 million more or an increase of 6% compared to the end of 2023. This is already the 13th consecutive increase, mainly triggered by further escalating conflicts, including in Sudan, Myanmar, Haiti, Gaza, Lebanon, DR Congo and Ukraine. With 14.3 million people displaced, the war in Sudan triggered the world's largest displacement crisis. By the end of April 2025, however, the numbers had fallen slightly to 122.1 million people. Despite the massive needs, the willingness to support the work of the UNHCR continued to decline. Massive cuts in operations and a cut in global staffing costs of around 30% are the result. UN High Commissioner Filippo Grandi speaks not only of a financial crisis, but also of a ‘crisis of responsibility’, which is likely to fuel only further instability.
Ten key findings from the UNHCR report can be found here.
About this series
The ‘Geneva Telegram’ analyses and documents the processes in Geneva's multilateral organisations on current topics. The reports on multilateral issues draw on the expertise of the KAS Geneva team and external authors. The Geneva Telegram is supplemented by the Maps of the Month, which summarise the voting results of UN member states on selected topics.
