Refugee Crisis Deteriorates As Wars and Geopolitical Disputes Have No Sign of Ending

Every single day, families around the world are forced to leave their homes. Some become refugees in a different country; some migrate to escape back-breaking poverty, while still others search for safety and a better life without crossing a border.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 1 in every 74 people across the globe has been forced to flee–and to confront unequal treatment and opportunities. Many people leave with nothing but the clothes on their backs. But far too often, people who seek refuge elsewhere are met with public policies that put their families in harm’s way.

With the help of people like you, Oxfam has fought to defend the equal rights of millions of refugees and other displaced people across the globe. The US has a responsibility to respond to this growing displacement crisis on all fronts–by funding programs that provide lifesaving assistance to displaced people worldwide, rebuilding its broken asylum system, offering resettlement in the US to the most vulnerable, and increasing diplomatic efforts to prevent the conflicts and human rights abuses that force people to flee in the first place.

While displacement is not a new phenomenon, its global scale has worsened over time. At the end of 2022, more than 108 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced because of "persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order." Among them are nearly 35 million refugees, around 40 percent of whom are children under the age of 18. The 19 million additional people displaced from 2021 to 2022 is the largest ever single year increase in forced displacement according to the UN.

Refugees and migrants are ordinary people who have been forced to cross boundaries and borders. Included in the world’s growing displaced population are people who sought refuge from conflicts that show no signs of abating, such as in Ukraine and Somalia. Meanwhile asylum seekers are fleeing Central America and seeking protection at the US southern border due to gang-related and gender-based violence, impunity and corruption, and food insecurity exacerbated by climate change.

Around the world, Oxfam partners with local organizations to help refugees and other displaced people with their immediate basic needs for clean water, shelter, food, and work as well as advocate for their long-term wellbeing—both in their own nations, and in the countries that host them. We engage with allies and government officials at all levels to focus on peace and find sustainable solutions to the conflict and violence that ruin so many lives. We push for wealthy countries to welcome refugees and boldly attend to their needs. And we advocate for public policies that protect the rights of displaced families as they strive to rebuild their lives and fight to provide for their children a more equal future—in their own countries or the ones in which they settle.

Oxfam partners with local organizations to address the reasons people are forced to leave their homes. These community-based solutions and campaigns tackle sexual and gender-based violence, invest in sustainable development, fight corruption and impunity, increase access to justice, and call for peace. When we are successful, families are able to stay in their homes and communities.

Millions of people on the move struggle to find clean water, shelter, food, and work. Because of the war in Ukraine, the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria, and food crises in East Africa, we are seeing more people on the move than ever before. Oxfam works within refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) communities, often hand-in-hand with refugee-led organizations, to provide aid in emergencies such as these to help people regain security.

In Central America, as families flee to the US in search of safety, we have provided lifesaving assistance at camps and shelters along their journey and supported employment opportunities. When necessary, we have responded along the migrant caravan routes in Guatemala and Mexico with humanitarian aid, including distribution of hygiene kits, food packages, and water, and installation of portable toilets, showers, and drinking water points for thousands in need.

Oxfam advocates for policies that protect the world’s most vulnerable. We have gone to court to defend the right of people to claim asylum at the US-Mexico border–suing the Trump and Biden administrations for their expulsions of unaccompanied children and families seeking refuge in the US under Title 42 for example–and are demanding the US put an end to other anti-refugee and anti-immigrant policies, including asylum bans.

Oxfam has been working in Central America for more than three decades to combat violence and fight inequality–the real reasons people flee their homes in the first place. We support those struggling with economic hardship, we provide women with the skills to break out of domestic violence situations, we support farmers to combat food insecurity, and we advocate for governments (including the US) to implement just fiscal policies.

In the US, we have established grants and partnerships with worker organizations that directly represent migrants. These partnerships seek to empower those impacted workers, build their capacity to self-organize, and use our networks to amplify their voice.

U.S. foreign aid plays a critical role in tackling poverty, hunger, and inequality worldwide, which is why the Trump administration’s recent cuts were met with public outrage and pushback from development and humanitarian organizations, including Oxfam.

Despite widespread public support for U.S.-funded foreign aid, the Trump administration has shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) , which funded the majority of U.S. humanitarian and development assistance worldwide to people in some of the worst crises. The effect of these cuts on people is dire: At least 23 million children stand to lose access to education, and as many as 95 million people would lose access to basic healthcare, potentially leading to more than 3 million preventable deaths per year.

Oxfam has responded to the closure of USAID by joining other humanitarian groups in a lawsuit to defend USAID and U.S. foreign assistance, which is ongoing.

So what does the Trump administration's decision to eliminate so much foreign aid mean, what impact could it have around the world, and why is it critical for the government to reverse this decision? Oxfam answers all of these questions and more.

USAID facilitated much of the humanitarian and foreign development assistance of the U.S. government since it was established in 1961. USAID brought lifesaving medicines, food, clean water, assistance for farmers, kept women and girls safe, and promoted peace--all for less than one percent of our federal budget.

“There is not a single area of development and humanitarian assistance USAID has not been involved in,” said Oxfam America’s President and CEO Abby Maxman, who has been working in international development for 30 years. “People at USAID have been thought leaders implementing ideas at scale, in wide ranging areas -- I don’t think there is a major area of the development system in which USAID did not bring its technical know-how, research, and evidence.”

Foreign aid programs help people around the world in various ways, providing food, healthcare, education, economic development, and disaster relief. It’s a key part of U.S. foreign policy and has proven to be an important factor in reducing global poverty. This type of assistance—from the United States as well as other governments and international institutions—has saved millions of lives.

The United States used to spend around one percent of the federal budget on foreign development assistance, which includes both humanitarian assistance and development programs.

The agency overseeing much of U.S. foreign aid was the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) which had a budget of $63 billion in fiscal year 2023. Within the broad definition of foreign aid, the exact amount of poverty-focused development aid carried out by USAID varied from year to year, but until 2025 it has been around 0.49 percent of the federal budget, which worked out to about $105 per U.S. citizen per year.

USAID’s work abroad covered many regions and issues including HIV prevention, the humanitarian crisis in Congo, war relief in Ukraine, among numerous others.

One of the more effective efforts funded by USAID over the last 50 years was in the area of maternal and child health (MCH). Since 1990 the number of children under the age of five dying has dropped by half, and 90 countries saw their rate of under-five mortality drop by two thirds during the same period. Just from 2020 until 2023, annual maternal deaths fell by 40 percent. Despite the fact that USAID programs have helped contribute to the tremendous progress in this area of public health in poor countries, recent cuts to USAID awards include 86 percent of the MCH projects.

Another program, which has saved the lives of millions, is the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Since 2003, the program has saved over 25 million lives, prevented millions of HIV infections, and supported countries in HIV epidemic control. The program has been incredibly successful in increasing HIV testing, providing lifesaving treatment, and improving health systems around the world. Now, under the aid freeze, PEPFAR’s future is under threat, potentially leaving more than 20 million people – including 500,000 children – at risk without adequate HIV treatment and services.


Rifat Rafique Badhan is a 
freelancer and a columnist.