Middle East and North Africa

15.8 million forcibly displaced and stateless people¹ | 12% of global total 

¹ Please see definitions of population types on UNHCR's Refugee Data Finder website.

The region's protracted humanitarian crises and political and security challenges will continue in 2024.  A string of new emergencies struck the region in 2023, adding to existing crises, while the war in Ukraine reversed some of the economic gains made since the pandemic. The latest shocks include devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic, natural disasters in Morocco and Libya, and a civil war in Sudan that has driven refugees into Egypt, another country with a fragile economy. 

All this increases the hardship experienced by forcibly displaced and stateless people and their host communities, exacerbating their vulnerability, depleting their resources and straining social cohesion. The risks – including exploitation, smuggling, trafficking, refoulement, expulsions, arrest and detention – increase the need for UNHCR’s protection work while making it harder to bring each person’s displacement or statelessness to a satisfactory end. A total of 11.7 million people in the region are expected to be displaced within their own country in 2024, and UNHCR hopes to reach 5.8 million of them with assistance.  

The Syria crisis remains the region’s largest cause of displacement, with over 5.3 million registered Syrian refugees in Türkiye, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and North Africa. Syrians are still being displaced and conditions are not conducive to large-scale voluntary returns, with fewer than 40,000 returning in the first nine months of 2023. Support for refugee-hosting countries is crucial. In Lebanon, for example, one of the largest refugee-hosting countries in the world, nine out of 10 refugees live in extreme poverty.  

Resettlement and complementary pathways remain the most viable solution to forced displacement in the region. Including Syrians in Türkiye, 848,000 vulnerable refugees will need resettlement from the region in 2024, 753,000 of them Syrian. Syrians are the nationality with the highest resettlement needs globally.  

Movements from sub-Saharan Africa towards North Africa, combined with fewer safe routes to asylum, add to the pressures on UNHCR’s systems and resources. Sea departures have significantly increased from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, where two thirds of the population depend on humanitarian assistance and the protracted conflict still produces localized escalations around contested areas. In 2024, UNHCR plans to increase cash assistance in Yemen for IDPs and returnees and shift towards sustainable local settlements.  

Where possible, UNHCR will press for people’s inclusion in national services and social protection systems. Progress is foreseen in Mauritania and in Iraq, where people will be included in public services instead of receiving individual humanitarian assistance, resulting in a reduction in UNHCR’s staffing and budgeted needs for 2024.   

UNHCR will pursue advocacy with governments, leveraging Global Refugee Forum pledges, and stronger partnerships, to ensure protection and safety, especially for those who are unable to repatriate. In conjunction with UNDP and partners, UNHCR will seek to update the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), the main platform for coordination, planning, advocacy, fundraising and programming in the Syria crisis.