On September 29th, the Biden administration announced the United States will admit 125,000 refugees in fiscal year 2024, from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024. We welcome the current administration’s commitment to address the needs of the 110 million people currently displaced worldwide. The IRC in Silver Spring expects to resettle 600 refugees this year, a twenty percent increase from the 500 allocated to IRC in Silver Spring in fiscal year 2023.

The IRC Iraq Protection Needs Overview for October 2023 to March 2024 highlights significant challenges faced by internally displaced people (IDPs), returnees, refugees, and host communities, focusing on access to basic services, legal assistance, and the impacts of climate change. Key issues include heightened vulnerabilities, child labor, and barriers to accessing education and legal documentation.

The IRC Iraq Protection Needs Overview for October 2023 to March 2024 highlights significant challenges faced by internally displaced people (IDPs), returnees, refugees, and host communities, focusing on access to basic services, legal assistance, and the impacts of climate change. Key issues include heightened vulnerabilities, child labor, and barriers to accessing education and legal documentation.

As a way of tackling the ongoing displacement crisis, the IRC is focusing on community engagement to help with the integration of resettled refugees into our local communities, through a new Community Sponsorship model called the HOME (Housing, Orientation, Mentoring, Education) program.

Months of escalating hostility towards Ukraine have culminated in a concerted invasion of the country and the launch of military attacks across multiple cities in Ukraine starting from February 24th, 2022. As of March 26, 2022, an estimated 2.2M people have fled to Poland from Ukraine. Many have been welcomed by the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland, many more are being hosted by Polish families, and the rest reside in recently established shelters and reception centers. While the Polish government, Polish NGOs, UN agencies, and local civil society actors have provided multisectoral relief across the country, this rapid needs assessment aims to better understand the priority needs, vulnerabilities, and barriers to accessing information, services, and humanitarian support that people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine face in Poland, including those experienced by groups with heightened vulnerability.  This assessment will be used to inform the IRC’s strategic response to these displaced populations in Poland and will be widely shared with the overall humanitarian community, including with Polish civil society and governmental bodies who have provided rapid and much needed relief to people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. 

Following the release of the IRC’s Emergency Watchlist 2024 in December last year, a list of 20 countries most at risk of humanitarian deterioration where Sudan was ranked number 1, the IRC has produced a mid-year Sudan Crisis Alert Report to show the trajectory of the world’s worst displacement crisis, as an update to the Watchlist report. Read our report here.

Learn more about our Salamati Rohi program that aims to build resiliency among forcibly displaced Afghans here in Colorado from MHPSS Program Coordinator, Cherisse Davis and Mental Health Specialist, Masooma Sadeqi.

Sixty million people are fleeing their homes, two-thirds within their own countries and the rest crossing borders to seek refuge. While the world has never been more generous in responding, offering $28 billion in 2015, the $15 billion gap between humanitarian needs and available financing has never been so wide. We need better aid to make the greatest impact with scarce resources and overcome the challenges of modern displacement.