Asia and the Pacific

Regional overview

The two major displacement situations in the Asia-Pacific region became more challenging and attracted less funding in 2023. UNHCR sought to shore up the protection of refugees, other forcibly displaced as well as stateless people, to address and reverse signs of fatigue among donors and host States, and to counter online misinformation, disinformation and hate speech.

In Afghanistan, UNHCR's efforts to protect and assist returnees, internally displaced people, refugees and asylum-seekers were hampered by a ban on women working for the UN and other national and international organizations. Despite this, UNHCR assisted over 1.52 million people, reaching all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. Almost 80% of those assisted were women and children. UNHCR provided much-needed cash assistance to 363,000 people and assisted 75,300 Afghans returning to Afghanistan from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. However, far larger numbers of Afghans – more than 1.1 million people – were deported from the Islamic Republic of Iran or returned under Pakistan’s “Illegal foreigners’ repatriation plan”. Although the number of returns from Pakistan slowed towards the end of the year, UNHCR continued to advocate globally against the involuntary returns of Afghans in view of its non-return advisory as well as for safe and voluntary returns and a screening mechanism to identify individuals in need of international protection. International partners at the Global Refugee Forum backed a multistakeholder pledge that aimed to support displaced Afghans in Afghanistan and the principal countries hosting Afghan refugees in the spirit of responsibility-sharing.

Armed conflict intensified across Myanmar. Over 700,000 people fled their homes in the last three months of 2023, bringing the total number of those internally displaced to 2.6 million. With roads and waterways closed, supplies of household goods and essential services ran out and inflation skyrocketed. Despite the escalating violence and frequent interruptions to communications, UNHCR’s 12 offices across the country delivered critical support to displaced and conflict-affected communities, reaching around 425,000 people with core relief items. 130,000 people benefited from community-based projects and 47,000 received cash assistance. UNHCR urged governments in the region to grant access to territory to Rohingya and other newly arriving refugees fleeing the new surge in fighting. UNHCR sought to enhance the resilience of nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char in Bangladesh.

Almost 300,000 refugee children were able to go to primary and secondary school, with many Rohingya students following the Myanmar curriculum. UNHCR continued to operationalise the Government of Bangladesh-endorsed UN multi-year formal vocational skills development project for refugees and host communities, which saw close to 3,500 refugees (56% women) complete vocational skills training in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char. To support the Government of Bangladesh’s efforts to enhance security in the camps, UNHCR provided technical support to ensure protection-sensitive and community-responsive policing.

UNHCR advanced a comprehensive regional approach to finding solutions for Rohingya refugees and sustaining support for host countries, with a focus on safeguarding the right to return, building refugee and host community resilience and maintaining support for the response. UNHCR mobilized international support for the Rohingya at a high-level meeting in Bangkok in October, leading up to a multistakeholder pledge at the Global Refugee Forum in December. UNHCR also pressed the authorities in Myanmar for predictable access so that UNHCR and UNDP could implement community-led projects in Rakhine State.

The year 2023 was the deadliest since 2015 for maritime movements in the region. Nearly 4,500 Rohingya refugees, mainly women and children, embarked on perilous sea journeys, and 569 were reported as dead or missing. Widespread physical abuse, including gender-based violence, was reported by the survivors. To enable a more effective and predictable response to onward movements over land and sea, UNHCR initiated a route-based approach, which included efforts to enhance protection-sensitive entry systems and admission procedures, safe disembarkation, and humanitarian assistance to address immediate needs.

UNHCR was able to submit more refugees as candidates for resettlement in 2023 than in 2022 - it submitted over 39,000 refugees living in Bangladesh, the Islamic Republics of Iran and Pakistan, Malaysia and Thailand for resettlement consideration, an 86% increase. An estimated 8,500 individuals took complementary pathways, seeking to find their way out of displacement by travelling to a new country to work, study, or reunite with family. UNHCR also worked to help States in the region identify, reduce and prevent statelessness.

Climate change is making life even more precarious for people who have been forced to flee in the region and the communities that host them. UNHCR and its partners accelerated their efforts to raise funds for emergency responses and recovery from extreme weather events such as cyclones and earthquakes. They also advocated for the inclusion of forcibly displaced people in climate adaptation and resilience building, and advanced innovative partnerships, distributing solar panels to some 83,000 in Afghanistan and reforesting more than 11 hectares in Bangladesh.

Protection

Child protection

Accountability to
affected populations

Basic needs

Shelter

Health

Nutrition