Geneva, Switzerland - A wave of "drastic, irresponsible" aid cuts this year have inflicted unnecessary pain on refugees, who are being vilified while their suffering is exploited by traffickers and politicians, the United Nations said Monday.

Outgoing UN refugees chief Filippo Grandi said this year had been a perfect storm of successive crises for the world's forcibly displaced people, who were estimated to number 117.3 million people in mid-2025.

He condemned the "unending atrocities" committed in Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, and Myanmar, but also the "sudden, drastic, irresponsible and short-sighted collapse of foreign assistance... inflicting so much unnecessary pain in its wake."

The number of people forcibly displaced worldwide has almost doubled in the last decade, but funding for international aid has slumped, not least after the return of US President Donald Trump to the White House.

Opening a biennial Global Refugee Forum Progress Review in Geneva, Grandi condemned a global context "in which hate is allowed to increasingly spread racist divisions."

This year has been one where "refugees were frequently vilified, scapegoated in so many places, with their suffering cynically used by traffickers for profit, and their situation by politicians to gain votes," said Grandi, the head of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

The three-day gathering in Geneva brings together more than 1,800 participants to try to find solutions for millions of displaced people worldwide.

Geneva-based UNHCR, like many other UN agencies, has been clobbered by international aid cuts. It has shed nearly 5,000 jobs this year – more than a quarter of its workforce.

It is grappling with surging global displacement, while under Trump, the US – traditionally the world's top donor – has heavily slashed foreign aid.

UNHCR's funding has been cut by 35% this year to date.

Washington previously accounted for more than 40% of the UNHCR's budget.

Other major donor countries have also been tightening their belts.

Grandi is leaving at the end of December after 10 years leading the UNHCR.

Barham Salih (65), Iraq's president from 2018 to 2022, is set to become the next United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.