Geneva review: UN agency urges action as refugee gains face rollback

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) – As global displacement reaches historic highs and asylum debates grow increasingly polarized, the Global Refugee Forum (GRF) Progress Review opens in Geneva at what the UN refugee agency describes as a critical moment for sustaining refugee protection.

Running from Dec. 15-17 and co-hosted by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and Switzerland, the meeting brings together governments, civil society groups, the private sector, academics, faith leaders and more than 200 refugees to assess progress on past pledges and to chart a way forward amid a worsening global environment.

The Global Compact on Refugees, adopted by the UN in 2018, provides a framework for international cooperation to improve responses to refugee situations by strengthening responsibility-sharing and support for host countries and displaced communities.

Nicolas Brass, UNHCR’s head of the global compact on refugees, told Anadolu the review must move beyond analysis and respond to today’s pressures with renewed collective resolve.

The progress review, he said, is about “taking stock of what has been achieved since the last Global Refugee Forum in 2023.” But given today’s challenges, “we really need, all together, to make this meeting count.”

He noted that while responsibility-sharing had improved over the past decade, recent trends point sharply in the opposite direction.

“The latest data we have received, looking at the allocation of official development assistance, is very concerning. The levels are decreasing and the outlook for the foreseeable future is extremely bleak,” he said. “This is the number one challenge.”

As multilateralism faces growing skepticism, Brass said the meeting offers an opportunity to demonstrate that cooperation still matters.

“This meeting will be an opportunity to show that multilateralism does make a difference,” he said.

Brass stressed that the meeting is about reinforcing unity at a time when humanitarian budgets are shrinking and political divides are widening.

“What we are looking forward to seeing happen are renewed commitments in support of refugees and host countries,” he said.

He added that the meeting could also reaffirm UNHCR’s coordinating role and “bring a sense of hope and a sense of way forward.”

“It will be an occasion also for UNHCR … to continue playing this convening catalytic role and leading the refugee response in support of governments and host countries.”

- Pressure on host countries risks progress

Brass acknowledged that host countries have enacted meaningful policy reforms in recent years, but warned that those gains are increasingly fragile.

“Host countries have already done a lot. Many countries have actually committed to change their laws and policies to really facilitate the inclusion of refugees into national systems,” he said. “Those gains and progress are at risk of being lost if solidarity doesn’t come to fruition.”

Now is the moment to step up rather than step back, he said, particularly as asylum systems face mounting political pressure in many regions.

UNHCR data reflect both progress and vulnerability.

Since 2019, more than 3,400 pledges have been made under the GRF framework by over 1,300 partners, with about two-thirds fulfilled or underway.

These commitments have produced tangible results: 10 countries have introduced new labor laws allowing refugees to work; more than 160,000 refugees in Mexico have entered the formal workforce; and in Poland, refugee labor inclusion has contributed up to 2.7% of GDP growth.

Refugee enrollment in higher education has increased from 6% to 9% since 2023, while 10 countries have strengthened asylum systems, including Chad, which adopted its first asylum law.

But without renewed political will and sustained investment, the agency warned, recent progress could be reversed.

Conflict, record civilian casualties – with one life lost every 12 minutes – and deepening political polarization continue to drive displacement, UNHCR said.

At the same time, countries holding just 27% of global wealth host 80% of the world’s refugees, and low-income nations bear a disproportionate share of responsibility.

In 2023, only $14.4 billion in aid was allocated to refugee situations, a figure UNHCR noted is 190 times lower than global military spending in 2024.

- Refugee leadership and the path forward

For Zakia Khudadadi, an Afghan Hazara para-taekwondo athlete and UNHCR high-profile supporter, the stakes of inclusion are deeply personal.

After fleeing Afghanistan in 2021, she joined the Refugee Paralympic Team and made history at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games by winning the team’s first-ever medal.

“When inclusion is real, it can change lives,” she told Anadolu.

“Sport became my lifeline – a place where I could stand tall again,” she said. “If we open these opportunities to every displaced woman and every person with a disability, we don’t just change their future, we start to change the world around them.”

Her experience reflects a key message of the progress review: refugees are not only recipients of assistance but active contributors whose skills can benefit host societies when barriers are removed.

The meeting serves as a key milestone bridging the 2023 and 2027 Global Refugee Forums. It is expected to influence the direction of financing, policy and operational priorities linked to the Global Compact on Refugees.

“I do hope that we will hear some actors, states, and non-state actors stand up during the meeting and pledge and commit in support of refugees and host countries,” Brass said. “I’m hopeful that this will happen.”