Funding cuts put 8.3 million refugees at risk of losing vital assistance
12 hours ago
A former refugee family receive reintegration support from UNHCR after returning home to Burundi from DR Congo.
Haji Mohammad Shafi spent 44 years in Pakistan before he was forced to leave. He sold everything he owned and returned to Afghanistan with his five children, arriving with almost nothing.
The family received a one-off cash grant from the UN refugee agency ( UNHCR ) on crossing the border, but without a steady income and with a leg injury that limits his ability to work, Mr. Shafi now lives in a makeshift shelter in Kabul Province, its walls patched with stones and its windows covered with plastic sheets.
“ When there is little food, I give it to the children. If they are hungry, they cry ,” he says.
“We have nothing prepared for winter. If someone helps, we can manage. If no one helps, we have nothing .”
His family is among nearly 8.3 million refugees and other forcibly displaced and stateless people on the brink of losing access to vital assistance as severe funding cuts push protection systems towards breaking point, UNHCR warned on Tuesday.
In a new report, titled Protection Eroded: The Human Cost of Underfunding , the agency said available funding fell from $5.178 billion to $3.932 billion between 2024 and 2025 .
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