Switzerland// – Barham Salih, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, launched the agency’s flagship Global Trends Report today, which reveals global forced displacement has decreased for the first time in a decade while remaining unacceptably high.
In 2025, 5.4 million people escaped violence and persecution by fleeing to other countries. But the report showed that returns are also gathering pace; 14.7 million displaced people returned to their areas or countries of origin in 2025 (4.4 million refugees and 10.3 million internally displaced people), with a sharp increase in Afghanistan, Sudan and Syria. Refugee returns were the second highest since records began 60 years ago, though many occurred under pressure and to precarious conditions at home.
Overall, the data showed that global refugee numbers declined in 2025 by 3 per cent to 41.6 million. In a positive development, nearly 46,000 stateless people acquired citizenship across 24 countries last year.
With 70 per cent of refugees trapped in exile for years and many living below the poverty line, Salih also urged the international community to back a new initiative to lift millions out of long-term displacement and reliance on humanitarian aid.
“For too many refugees, displacement starts as a lifeline but lasts a lifetime,” Salih said. “Humanitarian aid saves lives, but it is not the end point and does not enable refugees to become active agents in control of their futures. We need a paradigm shift that creates a new sense of hope and opportunity for people fleeing war and persecution.”
Salih outlined a clear and measurable goal: to reduce by more than half, over the next decade, the number of refugees in long-term displacement reliant on humanitarian assistance, improving prospects for millions of people. The target, which focuses on low- and middle-income countries where most refugees are hosted, would be reached by expanding opportunities for refugee returns, relocation and humanitarian visas, while transitioning from traditional forms of aid to self-reliance.
The initiative calls on governments, humanitarian and development actors, the private sector and civil society to scale efforts to empower refugees while upholding asylum and protection, which is more crucial than ever as 2026 marks the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention.
Salih laid out the steps needed to achieve this ambitious goal, which aims to bring refugees’ self-earned income (excluding humanitarian assistance) up to the national poverty line in the country where they are living.
Voluntary returns must be the primary solution. Resolving a handful of the world’s major conflicts would enable millions more refugees to return safely and with dignity.
Another key pillar for reaching the target is including refugees in national systems: education, health care, financial services and labour markets to enable them to generate income and contribute to local and national economies. This requires far more investment from a range of partners to reach overstretched hosting countries.
Finally, Salih said, more refugee solutions abroad are urgently needed, such as resettling the most vulnerable cases, reuniting families and providing access to work permits and scholarships. The gap between places and needs is enormous and has been widening. In 2025, the report showed, arrivals through resettlement or sponsorship pathways fell by more than half year on year to 81,800.
“Asylum and protection are life-saving and not up for debate, but we cannot accept a future in which millions of refugees remain trapped for years or decades without realistic prospects of rebuilding their lives,” said Salih.
“We now have an ambitious, achievable and quantifiable goal to advance self-reliance and transform lives for the better. UNHCR will galvanise efforts across society to meet this challenge and create pathways out of the grinding banality of protracted displacement for millions.”
African Eye Report
