The UN agency issued a stark warning on Friday, cautioning that nearly 13 million displaced people, including children, could be left without access to life-saving health services unless urgent funding gaps are addressed.
“Without adequate resources, an estimated 12.8 million displaced people, including 6.3 million children, could be left without life-saving health interventions in 2025,” Allen Maina, UNHCR’s chief of public health, told a press briefing at the UN in Geneva, referring to the US foreign aid cuts.
Maina said health and nutrition programs for refugees and their host communities are deteriorating rapidly, with reduced spending by host governments compounding the problem. The decline in such programs is increasing the risk of disease outbreaks, malnutrition, untreated chronic conditions and mental health issues, he said.
“When support for refugee health care is cut, refugees will be forced to pay from their own pockets-but they do not have the funds-and will face challenges accessing already strained public services, overwhelming local clinics and hospitals,” he warned.
He provided alarming examples from operations around the globe. In Bangladesh, one million Rohingya refugees are at risk of losing essential care, including antenatal services for 40,000 pregnant women and treatment for 19,000 malnourished children.
“In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the health care system is on the brink of collapse,” Maina said, adding that the agency’s health budget for the country has been slashed by 87%.
In Egypt, he said, “all medical treatment for refugees … has been suspended, except emergency life-saving procedures.”
The cuts are also having deadly consequences for children, he stressed. “In Ethiopia’s Gambella region … nine severely malnourished children under five were discharged and referred to outpatient programs before recovering, likely leading to their deaths.”
“Every day that this financial uncertainty continues will increase the impact on the lives of the millions of men, women and children around the world that have fled their homes to find safety,” he said.