Geneva:
It is estimated that 2.5 million refugees around the world will be resettled next year, the UN said on Tuesday, at a time when the United States, but other nations also shrink with resettlement access.
UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, said the needs were a little down from this year when about 2.9 million refugees are estimated to need resettlement.
“This is mainly due to the changed situation in Syria, which has enabled voluntary returns,” UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo told journalists in Geneva.
“We see some people withdrawing from resettlement processes in favor of plans to go home to rebuild,” she added.
Mantoo said that by 2026, the largest refugee populations were likely to be reset, Afghans, Syrians, South Sudanese, Rohingya of Myanmar and Congoles.
Most of the refugees need resettlement from major host countries, including Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Uganda, she said.
The message came when UNHCR’s resettlement effort faces towering obstacles.
“In 2025 … Re-settling quotas are expected to be the lowest in two decades falling below the levels seen even under the Covid-19 pandemic when many countries held their programs,” Mantoo said.
Part of the decline is linked to the United States – long the world’s largest resettlement of refugees – who have now slammed its doors closed.
Shortly after returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump stopped the US refugee program
