GENEVA: The United Nations’ refugee agency has laid off nearly 5,000 employees this year after facing severe funding shortages triggered by deep cuts in international aid, its chief Filippo Grandi said on Monday.
The UNHCR is facing a towering crisis amid surging global displacement, and humanitarian funding has been fast evaporating since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January.
“Almost 5,000 UNHCR colleagues have already lost their jobs this year,” Filippo Grandi said.
“This is more than a quarter of our entire workforce,” he said, warning that “that number is expected to grow”.
An agency spokesman, cited by AFP, said that both full-time staff and people on temporary or consultancy contracts had lost their jobs.
Traditionally, the world’s top donor, the United States, has heavily slashed foreign aid, causing havoc across the globe.
Washington previously accounted for over 40 percent of the UNHCR’s budget, and that, along with belt-tightening by other major donor countries, has left the agency in a dire situation, Grandi acknowledged.
“The numbers are bleak,” the UNHCR High Commissioner said.
UNHCR had an approved budget for 2025 of $10.6 billion, Grandi said, stressing though that the agency in recent years had received only “approximately half of our budget requirements” — or around $5 billion.
“As things stand, we projected we will end 2025 with $3.9. billion in funds available — a decrease of $1.3 billion compared to 2024, or roughly 25 percent less.”
“No country, no sector, no partner, has been spared,” Grandi said. “Critical programmes and lifesaving activities have to be stopped, gender-based violence prevention work, and psychosocial support to survivors of torture, stopped.
“Schools were closed, food assistance decreased, cash grants cut, resettlement ground to a halt. This is what happens when you slash funding by over $1 billion in a matter of weeks.”
