UNHCR reports first decline in global refugee numbers amid risky returns

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released its Global Trends report showing that, for the first time in ten years, the number of people in forced displacement fell in 2025. At the end of the year 117.8 million people were displaced, a 4 % drop from the previous year, with refugees numbering 35.6 million—a 3.5 % reduction. UN High Commissioner Barham Salih emphasized that the decline reflects “precarious returns” to countries still facing severe humanitarian crises, including Afghanistan, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan, where 14.7 million people were compelled to move back.

A separate UNHCR regional analysis focused on East and Southern Africa, finding that 6.4 million people remained registered as refugees or asylum‑seekers at the end of 2025. Many have spent a generation in exile, especially those fleeing wars and persecution in Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia. The report notes that three‑quarters of refugees stay displaced beyond five years, with children and women disproportionately affected. Regional director Mamadou Dian Balde called for durable solutions beyond emergency aid, stressing the need for education, decent work and safe, voluntary repatriation when conditions allow.