Global refugee crisis and refugee rights

People displaced by conflict, disasters, and persecution deserve safety, dignity, and respect for their basic rights.

More than 117 million people across the world have been forcibly displaced from their homes, most of them due to violent conflict. Among them are almost 42 million refugees who have crossed international borders to seek safety. Nearly 68 million are displaced within their own country by violence or disasters, and face many of the same challenges as refugees. One in 70 people in the world has been forcibly displaced, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Recent cuts to aid budgets are constraining resources available to groups serving refugees and displaced people.

A Rohingya woman refugee cultivates vegetables in a refugee camp in Bangladesh.

Stand with refugees

Millions of families in Ukraine, Myanmar, the Horn of Africa, Syria and beyond are fleeing violence and in search of refuge. Help Oxfam support people caught up in these crises, ensuring they have access to food, clean water, and hygiene materials, and advocating for their rights.

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FAQ: The global refugee crisis

What is a refugee?

Refugees are people who have crossed an international border to seek safety that their own government cannot or will not provide. This includes people who have a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, or membership of a particular/political group. Refugees must not be returned to their home country if they fear they will be unsafe.

What is the difference between a refugee and an asylum seeker?

After crossing an international border, a refugee becomes an asylum seeker if they seek formal recognition of their need for safety in a third country. Asylum seekers come to the United States or other countries and then request asylum, as opposed to being admitted to a country as a resettled refugee.

What rights do refugees have under international law?

The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees says that resettled refugees should be accorded rights at least as favorable as citizens in regard to their right to practice a religion, own property, earn a wage, access justice and education, and to not be expelled and sent to a country from which they have fled due to a well-founded fear. This includes the right to fair legal proceedings if their stay in a country is challenged.

Refugees living in host countries (not yet resettled — resettlement is a relatively rare outcome for refugees) also have rights to freedom of movement and to identity documents. However, many countries that host large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers do not have the resources to ensure that refugees do not face restrictions on their human rights.

What is causing displacement of people?

Violent conflict in Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, and many other places is contributing to the forced displacement crisis. Protracted conflicts and economic crises in South Sudan, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Ukraine, Yemen, and Venezuela are all displacing people within and outside their countries. Other emergencies that drive displacement include earthquakes, storms, drought, and other climate shocks.

Oxfam's response to support refugees and other displaced people

Oxfam works with more than 300 local humanitarian partners to help refugees and other displaced people access clean water, food, shelter, livelihoods, and support for survivors of violence, especially women and girls. We also work to reduce tensions by ensuring host communities benefit from essential services. At the same time, we advocate for governments to protect the rights of displaced people, support peace, welcome refugees, and invest in aid that reduces conflict, poverty, and climate risk.

2.OGB_109714_Unloading-Oxfam-food-parcels.jpg — Oxfam’s local partner Coast Trust helps pack and unload food kits for Rohingya refugees at Oxfam’s warehouse in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Food distribution is one way Oxfam supports refugees in countries around the world. Photo: Tommy Trenchard/Oxfam

Assisting refugees

In South Sudan, Oxfam is providing clean water, sanitation, and other services to reduce the risk of violence to women and girls for refugees fleeing the war in Sudan. By the end of 2025, nearly 1.3 million refugees and returnees had entered South Sudan with an additional 380,000 arrivals projected by the end of 2026. Cuts in aid funds from donor countries have reduced food rations and other services available to assist refugees.

In Bangladesh Oxfam has provided water, sanitation services, public health campaigns, shelter, and other aid to Rohingya refugees crossing the border from Myanmar seeking safety, starting in 2017. In 2019, Oxfam and the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR opened a new sewage treatment plant, the largest ever built for refugees at that time, capable of processing sewage from 150,000 people.

RS353393_Southeast Turkiye and Syria earthquake-scr — Abdulhadi and Reem Hamandy proudly present their 10-day-old daughter Nur. They moved to Türkiye to escape conflict in Syria but lost their home in the February 2023 earthquakes. Photo: Tineke D'haese/Oxfam

Helping displaced people survive conflict and disasters

Internally displaced people face many of the same challenges as refugees – but they remain within the borders of their own country. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, decades of conflict have displaced millions of people across the country and especially in the eastern regions where Oxfam has been providing clean water and sanitation. Where possible, we are providing agricultural support for families returning to their homes and struggling to restart their farms.

In early 2026, an outbreak of Ebola disease is precipitating an additional crisis in the DRC. Oxfam is helping local health facilities set up handwashing stations, building latrines, repairing wells, and helping people understand how to prevent infection and where to get treatment.

Oxfam is also collaborating closely with organizations in Lebanon, assisting displaced people, providing psychological support, water and repairs to sewage systems in communities hosting people in communal shelters.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, heightened conflict since October 2024 has displaced most of the population of Gaza, where Oxfam is collaborating with 20 partner organizations that are providing clean water, latrines, assistance for survivors of violence, repairing sewage systems, and access to food and hygiene items including soap.

An engineer working with Oxfam checks repairs on municipal water systems in Gaza. Oxfam is helping to rehabilitate wells, repair water pipelines serving communities, and install temporary water access in areas hosting people displaced by the conflict. Mosab Al-Borno/ Alef Multimedia/ Oxfam

Advocating for the rights of displaced people

Oxfam advocates for policies that protect people living in the world’s most vulnerable circumstances. Recently, we are urging the U.S. government to maintain Temporary Protected Status of people seeking safety in the United States and have supported legal challenges in courts to prevent them from being sent back to countries where they will be at risk of violence or persecution, including Honduras, South Sudan, Yemen, Nepal, and Ethiopia.