UNHCR’s flagship Global Trends Report, launched in Geneva by High Commissioner Barham Salih, showed that The global number of refugees fell three percent in 2025 to 41.6 million..
Some 5.4 million people fled to other countries to escape violence and persecution during the year.
Coming back home
Returns also accelerated: 14.7 million displaced people returned to their areas or countries of origin in 2025 – including 4.4 million refugees and 10.3 million internally displaced people – with sharp increases recorded in Afghanistan, Sudan and Syria.
Refugee The returns were the second highest since records began 60 years ago.although the agency warned that many occurred under pressure and in precarious conditions.
A positive development is that almost 46,000 stateless people acquired citizenship in 24 countries last year.
A paradigm shift
Despite the overall decline, Salih warned that humanitarian aid alone was no longer enough.
With 70 percent of refugees trapped in exile for years and many living below the poverty line, he called for a fundamental change in approach.
“For many refugees, displacement begins as a lifeline but lasts a lifetime,” he said. “We need a paradigm shift that creates a new sense of hope and opportunity for people fleeing war and persecution.”
Mr. Salih outlined a concrete and measurable goal: to more than halve, over the next decade, the number of long-term displaced refugees dependent on humanitarian assistance, focusing on low- and middle-income countries where the majority of refugees are hosted.
The initiative would expand opportunities for voluntary return, humanitarian visas and relocation, while moving refugees from aid dependence to self-sufficiency through access to education, healthcare, financial services and labor markets.
Children sit among the rubble of a ruined building in Syria.
Fight for the future
The report also noted a sharp drop in resettlement, with arrivals through resettlement or sponsorship pathways. falling by more than half, year on year, to just 81,800 in 2025 – a growing gap between available places and pressing needs.
More than 70 percent of the refugees came from Afghanistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela. The largest host countries were Colombia, Germany and Türkiye..
“Asylum and protection save lives and are not up for debate,” Salih said, “but We cannot accept a future in which millions of refugees remain trapped for years or decades. without realistic prospects of rebuilding their lives.”