Global forced displacement falls to 117.8 million: UN

GENEVA: The number of people forcibly displaced from their homes worldwide fell for the first time in a decade in 2025, but the United Nations refugee agency said the overall figure remained at an extremely high level and warned that many returns took place in unsafe conditions.

According to UNHCR’s annual report, 117.8 million people were forcibly displaced by the end of 2025, down by 5.4 million from a year earlier. The agency said the decline was linked to a sharp rise in the number of refugees and internally displaced people returning to their areas of origin.

14.7 million displaced people returned home in 2025. Of them, 4.4 million were refugees who crossed back into their own countries, making it the second-highest annual total for refugee returns since records began 60 years ago.

Returns concentrated in a few countries

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, UN refugee chief Barham Salih said that more than 90% of refugee returns last year were concentrated in Afghanistan, Sudan and Syria. He cautioned that many of those movements did not happen under stable or secure circumstances.

Salih said people were returning to countries where insecurity continued, infrastructure had been damaged and basic services and economic opportunities were limited. He warned that such movements could trigger further displacement rather than resolve it.

""many of these returns occurred not under conditions of safety and stability, but under pressure""""Returns that are not safe.. are not a solution," he insisted. "They risk becoming the beginning of a new displacement cycle.""

Among those displaced at the end of 2025, 41.6 million were classified as refugees. Nearly 5.4 million people fled across borders and became refugees during the year.

UNHCR said 60% of these new refugees came from just eight countries. Nearly one million were from Sudan, while almost 800,000 fled Ukraine.

New crises in 2026

The report also identified conflicts that have driven fresh displacement since the start of this year. The Middle East war launched by the United States and Israel in February had displaced 3.2 million people inside Iran alone.

In Lebanon, UNHCR said Israeli attacks since March had displaced more than one million people. The agency added that the conflicts in Iran and Lebanon had also prompted many refugees living there to return to countries including Syria and Afghanistan, often in difficult conditions.

Resettlement places shrink

UNHCR also raised concern over the reduced space for refugee resettlement. It estimated that 2.9 million refugees currently need resettlement in third countries.

The agency said available resettlement places had reached 188,800 in 2024, the highest level in four decades. But in 2025 that figure fell by more than half to 81,800, with the report highlighting a steep drop in admissions by the United States.

Salih also said forced displacement was becoming increasingly prolonged, with many refugees remaining displaced for years or decades. He said 70% of refugees were now living in protracted situations.

Calling the trend unsustainable, he urged countries to support a new initiative aimed at reducing long-term displacement by half over the next decade through voluntary returns, resettlement and humanitarian visas. "Humanitarian assistance was designed for emergencies. It was never intended to sustain generations of people indefinitely," he said.

Salih said he hoped governments would support the effort, saying there was a way forward to create a more sustainable situation.