The Americas

The Americas face multiple overlapping and growing displacement situations. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Colombia, Central America, Mexico and Haiti have all experienced further significant displacement, and in 2024, the region's forcibly displaced and stateless population is expected to reach 25 million people. 

A record number of refugees and migrants crossed Panama's Darién jungle in 2023, and comparable numbers are expected in 2024..
After a five day trek through the Darien jungle in Panama, a group of Venezuelans have reached the informal reception point at Bajo Chiquito, and wait for a canoe to take them on the five-hour trip to Lajas Blancas, a temporary reception centre run by the Government of Panama. © UNHCR/Ilaria Rapido Ragozzino
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2024 population planning figures

25 million forcibly displaced and stateless people¹ | 19% of global total 

 

Americas - Planning figures 2024
 
¹ Please see definitions of population types on UNHCR's Refugee Data Finder website.

 

Regional overview

The Americas face multiple overlapping and growing displacement situations. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Colombia, Central America, Mexico and Haiti have all experienced further significant displacement, and in 2024, the region's forcibly displaced and stateless population is expected to reach 25 million, having almost doubled since 2018, as violence, insecurity, inequality, persecution and human rights violations go unresolved. 

UNHCR works in English, French, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish in the Americas, with 238 partners and over 269 partner agreements, 72% of them with local and refugee-led or IDP-led NGOs. UNHCR and its partners aim to ensure access to territory, asylum capacity, legal stay arrangements, documentation, civil registration, and inclusion in national services. Within limited resources, they will prioritize temporary shelter and other reception mechanisms, psychosocial support, legal counselling and other protection services. UNHCR will invest in trusted information platforms such as the R4V Service Mapping, the Confía en el Jaguar ("Trust the Jaguar”) information network on Facebook, and the Confía en el Tucán (“Trust the Toucan") social media campaign. 

Americas Regional Budget
Americas - Top 5 Operations by budget
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UNHCR and partners will ramp up efforts to engage with communities, particularly children and youth, people with disabilities, survivors of gender-based violence, and LGBTIQ+ people at risk. UNHCR will expand its work with international development and financial institutions to broaden support for host governments and host community programmes that can help open or expand fiscal space for countries absorbing large numbers of refugees and migrants, and reincentivize their welcoming policies. UNHCR works with development actors and the private sector to support inclusion and integration efforts, expanded job opportunities, health, education and housing for refugees and host communities.   

In Mexico, where UNHCR has helped to match asylum-seekers’ profiles and the workforce needs of more than 500 companies, over 35,000 refugees and asylum-seekers have been employed through a relocation from southern Mexico to 11 central and northern cities with a demand for workers. In Peru, a scheme launched by UNHCR and partners to promote labour inclusion has so far recognized 15 "inclusive companies". In Brazil, the internal voluntary relocation known as interiorização is a strategy within Operation Welcome that facilitates the socioeconomic integration of Venezuelan refugees and migrants. As of September 2023, more than 114,000 Venezuelans have been relocated to some 1,000 municipalities across the entire country. 

An unprecedented 400,000 people, 63% of them Venezuelans, crossed Panama’s Darién jungle in the first nine months of 2023, an almost threefold increase on 2022, and comparable numbers are expected in 2024. Reception mechanisms, already strained, are overwhelmed. Under the Comprehensive Regional Protection and Solutions Framework (MIRPS) in Central America and Mexico, UNHCR will provide targeted support to National Action Plans, the Regional Action Plan, and regional working groups on protection and solutions. 

Although some refugees and migrants will return to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, more are expected to leave, with 7.3 million across Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024. UNHCR and IOM, co-leading the Regional Inter-agency Coordination Platform and its Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan, will ensure a consistent inter-agency response across 17 countries and will support the Quito Process, an intergovernmental initiative to harmonize policies in receiving countries. 

Americas - Budget by impact area 2024
Americas - Top 5 budgets for outcome and enabling areas
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In Colombia, one of the world’s largest internally displaced populations will grow further, as dissidents of the peace process and other illegal armed groups compete for territorial and social control. UNHCR will seek to strengthen networks providing protection, legal assistance, shelter and other services, and those advocating for the prevention of forced recruitment. 

In Haiti, an estimated 5.2 million people will need assistance. UNHCR will launch local community-based support activities to prevent gangs recruiting youth and will give the protection cluster technical support for Government-led civil registration efforts. UNHCR and partners will advocate for increased protection measures for Haitians and respond to the needs of 200,000 Haitian asylum-seekers and refugees across the region. 

UNHCR will seek comprehensive, coordinated regional responses in 2024, and new avenues to protection, asylum, and lawful entry and stay, in line with the 2022 Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection and other regional initiatives. The 40th commemoration of the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees and the 2023 Global Refugee Forum will provide further opportunities for initiatives on law, policies and innovative solutions. 

Approximately 106,000 vulnerable refugees in the region will need resettlement in 2024. 

UNHCR's regional needs-based 2024 budget of $834.6 million represents a 1% increase from the current 2023 requirements. With funding under pressure, operations in the region will consolidate staffing structures. 

 

For the latest operational and funding updates on the Americas region check this page.