Aid and human rights agencies gathered on Friday under the umbrella of World Refugee Day to call for solidarity with people forced to flee their homes due to war, persecution or famine at a time when global funding for aid is dropping.
The decline is linked in part to the United States cutting its support for international medical and social projects, agencies said.
“In a world where conflicts multiply, it remains paramount that states uphold their responsibility to protect people forced to flee, while fostering an environment in which they can thrive and contribute until conditions allow for their safe and dignified return home,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Council of Europe chief Alain Berset added: “Protecting those who have no choice but to flee violence and persecution is both a moral duty and a legal obligation.
Berset, who has led the Strasbourg-based human rights body since last September, said the duty to protect displaced people is grounded in both international and European law.
"Our steadfast commitment to these principles is what unites the Council of Europe and will continue to shape Europe’s democratic future,” he said.
The UN refugee agency estimates that 120 million people are currently displaced – the highest figure ever recorded.
World Refugee Day was first marked on 20 June 2001 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
"There have never been so many displaced persons and refugees on the planet since we started calculating and compiling statistics," said Jérôme Bobin, director of institutional funding at Handicap International.
"We saw a 10 percent drop in international humanitarian aid last year. We expect much more of a drop in 2025, as the Americans were a major source of humanitarian aid funding.
"The Americans alone accounted for about 45 percent of global humanitarian aid. So, inevitably, when they suddenly stop funding the humanitarian response, there is a huge gap to fill.
"We have serious concerns about 2026, because many countries, such as France, the European Union and Germany, which have traditionally been major funders of humanitarian aid, have announced cuts for 2026 and 2027 as well."
‘The whole planet is affected’
World Refugee Day 2025 falls on the day when foreign ministers of Iran, France, Britain and Germany met in Geneva to talk about hostilities between Israel and Iran and the country's nuclear power programme.
"In recent years, we have seen an escalation in conflicts," added Bobin. "The entire planet is affected by these population displacements, and the numbers are constantly increasing.
"It is clear that states and armed groups find it easier to engage in conflict, and as a result, communities caught in the crossfire are held hostage and forced to move."
East Africa possesses the largest number of refugees on the continent. Uganda alone hosts around 1.7 million refugees, making it the leading host country in Africa and the third largest in the world.
Its policy of giving refugees access to education, healthcare and even agricultural land has been praised by the UN for enabling integration into Ugandan society.
In 2024, Chad became the continent's second largest host country, ahead of Ethiopia, with an average of 3,300 Sudanese arriving every day since the beginning of the year, bringing the total number of refugees to more than 1.2 million.
Causes of departure
Ethiopia, meanwhile, the third largest host country on the continent, is home to more than one million refugees, mainly from South Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea.
The causes of departure are multiple and interconnected, but armed conflict and violence remain the main cause. South Sudan (2.3 million), Sudan (2.1 million), the DRC (1.1 million) and Somalia (nearly 900,000) are among the largest countries of departure.
Instability in the Sahel region has led to an increase in refugees. Numbers tripled between 2020 and 2024, from 215,000 to 643,000.
Malians, Burkinabè and Nigeriens have fled mainly to Mauritania, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire.
One trend is clear: 67 percent of refugees remain in countries neighbouring their country of origin.
And more than half are children, often facing malnutrition, violence or lack of access to education.
On Thursday, the UN published an analysis on children and armed conflict which reported a record 41,370 incidents in 2024 of grave violations against children in armed conflict since the inception of the Children and Armed Conflict mandate almost 30 years ago.
Countries with the highest levels of violations in 2024 were Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, notably the Gaza Strip, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Nigeria and Haiti.
"When conflicts increase and when domestic needs increase, there is less money to devote to humanitarian aid," said Bobin. "And so when it comes to making trade-offs, humanitarian aid is inevitably the big loser. "
