The resettlement of vulnerable refugees in third countries has crashed globally since the withdrawal of the US from the United Nations’ administered program.

In 2024, 116,528 people were resettled around the world with around 80,000, or 69 per cent, finding new homes in the US.

The remainder went mostly to Canada, Australia, Germany, other European countries, and the Asia-Pacific region.

The resettlement number is expected to drop significantly this year, although the UN is pleading for other nations to accept more refugees.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR estimates that 2.9 million people will need resettlement — 500,000, or 20 per cent, more than the previous year.

The rise is due to the increase in mass displacement crises like the war in Syria — where, despite the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December, 6.2 million Syrians still live as refugees outside the country.

New conflicts, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and climate-related disasters like floods, earthquakes, and droughts have also fuelled the rise.

In 2024 alone, 6.6 million people were displaced by such events, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

More than 50 per cent of people being resettled are women and girls, as they often face serious risks in host countries where they typically live in refugee camps.

For many of them, resettlement represents a life-saving solution and their only chance to rebuild a future safely.

With the resettlement program in crisis, UNHCR is urging other countries to step up efforts to ensure that people who are most in need have access to resettlement.

“Every resettlement counts and must be valued, as it can help save a life. Even a relatively small quota is an important gesture of solidarity and is valued by refugee host countries,” a UNHCR spokesperson said.

The US founded its refugee program in 1980 when Congress unanimously approved the Refugee Act.

Since 1980, it has accepted more than three million refugees.

But more than 30,000 refugees who arrived in the US in the months leading up to the Trump administration have lost access to essential services.

Tens of thousands more remain in limbo overseas, including 1,600 Afghans who worked with the US military and who had been approved by the Biden government but had their flights cancelled at the last minute.

The Trump administration has argued that the US has become inundated by resettlement requests and cannot absorb large numbers of migrants, and particularly refugees.

But a study published last year by the US Department of Health and Human Services found that, over 15 years, refugees and asylum seekers contributed $US123.8 billion more to the country’s economy than they received in services.