Overview
- UNHCR projects about 2.4 million refugees will need resettlement in 2027 because they remain at risk where they live and cannot safely return home.
- Resettlement departures collapsed to roughly 37,000 in 2025 from more than 116,000 the year before, a shortfall that makes the 130,000-place target for 2027 unlikely to be met.
- The agency attributes the drop to destination-country policy shifts that paused admissions, tightened eligibility and created processing backlogs, a pattern UNHCR officials say must be reversed.
- Afghans are the largest group in need, followed by refugees from South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Rohingya in Bangladesh, with regional needs highest in Eastern and Southern Africa, Asia-Pacific and West/Central Africa.
- UNHCR is urging immediate action to raise quotas, broaden the pool of resettlement countries and speed processing to ease pressure on host states, protect vulnerable families and reduce long-term dependence on humanitarian aid.