Terre des Hommes for World Refugee Day on June 20th
Osnabrück/Berlin, June 19, 2025 – More than 122 million people worldwide are displaced, 40 percent – more than 48 million – are children. These figures come from the 2024 World Refugee Report, recently published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The number of children worldwide forced to flee or be displaced has thus increased by more than one million compared to 2023. Looking at the past five years, the number of refugee children has risen by at least 13 million. This increase comes at a time when drastic cuts in government development aid budgets are putting significant pressure on aid for refugees.
“It is a cynical catastrophe that the US and several European countries, including Germany, are drastically cutting development aid and humanitarian assistance at the very moment when a record number of people are fleeing and suffering from hunger, thirst, and a lack of medical care,” said Joshua Hofert, spokesperson for the board of the children’s rights organization Terre des Hommes . “From a humanitarian perspective, it is beyond question that children who have been driven from their homes should not simply be abandoned to their fate. At the same time, aid for refugees and displaced persons is essential to prevent vicious cycles of poverty and the emergence of new conflict zones.”
The main reasons for fleeing are wars and conflicts: The largest groups of displaced people come from Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Sudan saw a particularly drastic increase: More than 3.5 million people were displaced or forced to flee there in 2024 alone; in total, more than 14 million people are displaced.
Terre des Hommes currently supports projects for refugees from all the aforementioned countries: for example, in South Sudan, where the partner organization "Jesuit Refugee Service" provides food aid to refugee families from Sudan and internally displaced persons, helping them to build their own livelihoods. The funding cuts by the United States have had a noticeable impact on the ground: free school meals, often the most important meal of the day for refugee children, had to be discontinued in several regions. The partner organization itself had to lay off a large portion of its staff.
"The plight of refugees is particularly dire in South Sudan: Even before the cuts, food aid was insufficient. Host communities are overcrowded, and adults have little chance of finding regular employment without assistance. As a result, many children are malnourished, unable to attend school, or even forced to work themselves," said Hofert.
"This shows that the lives and futures of millions of children are at stake. Terre des Hommes therefore calls on the German government and the members of the Bundestag to continue providing life-saving resources instead of reducing humanitarian engagement as announced. Where other partners fail, it is all the more crucial that we step in wherever possible and remain firmly by the children's side."