The United Nations’ cash-strapped refugee agency has shed nearly 5,000 jobs this year following swingeing cuts in international aid, its chief said Monday.
The UNHCR is facing a towering crisis: amid surging global displacement, humanitarian funding has been fast evaporating since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January.
“Almost 5,000 UNHCR colleagues have already lost their jobs this year,” Filippo Grandi said.
“This is more than a quarter of our entire workforce,” he said, warning that “that number is expected to grow”.
An agency spokesman told AFP that both full-time staff and people on temporary or consultancy contracts had lost their jobs.