Tag: UNHCR

5.8 million refugee children still out of school as funding cuts threaten hard-won progress

Stuart Mitchell

Nearly 6 million refugee children were out of school worldwide in 2025, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, warned today, as deepening funding cuts threaten to shut millions more out of classrooms and reverse years of progress in refugee education. UNHCR’s latest annual education report, Pathways to the Future: Education, Opportunity and Self-Reliance, estimates that 5.8 million, or 44 per cent of the world’s 13.1 million school-aged refugee children, were out of school last year. “Looking back on my own years as a refugee, I understand the importance of education. It…

Read More

New global recommendations help States safeguard nationality and protect stateless people amid climate crisis

Stuart Mitchell

The impacts of climate change worldwide are increasing risks of people becoming stateless and making those already without a nationality even more vulnerable. Yet solutions exist, according to the first-ever Global Recommendations on Nationality and Statelessness in the Context of Climate Change, launched today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at the University of Melbourne. As the global climate continues to warm, nearly 90 per cent of the 4.5 million people known to be stateless today live in countries highly exposed to increasingly…

Read More

To mark 75 years of the Refugee Convention, 75 global voices unite with UNHCR to launch ‘The Promise’

Stuart Mitchell

As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, at a time of record displacement and mounting pressure on asylum systems, 75 leading figures from across society have joined UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in launching The Promise, a global statement of solidarity with refugees. Convened by UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Barham Salih, the initiative aims to build a global coalition in support of refugee protection at a time when the international system faces growing challenges. Through The Promise, signatories reaffirm the enduring principles of the Refugee…

Read More

Public support for refugees remains stable after 75 years of Convention protection

Stuart Mitchell

New Ipsos survey with UNHCR finds support for refugees resilient despite growing global uncertainties. Many question how refugee protection works in practice. Views diverge across countries and generations. Public support for refugees remains remarkably resilient despite years of political turbulence, socio-economic pressures in host countries and polarizing migration debates and policies, according to a new global survey from Ipsos released with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. The recent poll found that 66 per cent of respondents across 29 countries agreed that people fleeing war or persecution should be able to…

Read More

UNDP and UNHCR chiefs urge sustained investment as Afghanistan faces unprecedented refugee returnee influx

Stuart Mitchell

UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Alexander De Croo and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Barham Salih today called on the international community to provide urgent, sustained investment in Afghanistan as one of the world’s largest return movements places immense pressure on communities grappling with acute poverty, climate shocks and limited economic opportunities. Since 2023, more than 6 million Afghans have returned to the country, including around 2.9 million in 2025. More than 750,000 people have already returned so far this year, with a further 2.5 million expected by the…

Read More