3.500 jobs to be cut at UN refugee agency due to funding shortage

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced today that it will have to cut about 3.500 jobs due to a lack of funding, and said it needed to reduce staff costs by about 30 percent globally.

"In light of difficult financial realities, UNHCR is forced to reduce the global scale of its operations. We will concentrate our efforts on activities that have the greatest impact on refugees, drawing on streamlined structures at headquarters and regional bureau levels," High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a statement.

Since Donald Trump's return to the White House and his decision to freeze American international aid, layoffs have been mounting in humanitarian organizations, especially since many of them point out that the US is not the only one reducing its financial assistance.

UNHCR's Human Resources Council Chair Natalie Mayne told reporters in Geneva that she expects between 3.000 and 4.000 jobs to be cut globally.

In its statement today, UNHCR indicated that it had "had to close or reduce its offices worldwide and implement a reduction of almost 50 percent in administrative positions at its headquarters in Geneva and in regional bureaux."

"A total of around 3.500 jobs will be cut. In addition, hundreds of colleagues who temporarily supported the UNHC had to leave the organization due to lack of funding," the agency added.

Overall, UNHCR estimates that staff costs will be reduced by about 30 percent.

The organization indicated that its priority is to maintain operations in regions where refugee needs are most urgent, but added that essential programs such as financial assistance to vulnerable families, health, education, and water and sanitation have still been affected.

UNHCR predicts it will end this year with funding available at about the same level as a decade ago, even though the number of people forced to flee has almost doubled in that period, now reaching more than 122 million.

At the end of last year, one in 67 people in the world were forcibly displaced, or 123,2 million people. This includes 73,5 million internally displaced people and 31 million refugees under UNHCR's mandate.