Thousands of Refugee Families Cut from Cash Assistance as Funding Dries Up
Thousands of Refugee Families Cut from Cash Assistance as Funding Dries Up
UNHCR warns of severe humanitarian consequences as vulnerable families face eviction, hunger, and debt.
04 December 2025 - As of the beginning of December, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency in Iraq, has been forced to halt monthly cash assistance to the most socio-economically vulnerable refugee families due to a critical lack of funding.
In the second half of 2025, UNHCR provided cash assistance to over 5,500 vulnerable refugee families comprising 30,000 individuals. These families include the elderly, people with disabilities, and single mothers, many of whom have no other source of income to support their families. For them, cash assistance has been a lifeline, enabling them to pay rent, buy food, and cover essential medical bills among other household costs.
Earlier this year in May 2025, UNHCR already had to cut 1,500 refugee families from its cash assistance programme due to funding shortfalls. Those families only received six months of cash assistance out of the twelve months initially planned. Following these cuts, UNHCR also had to reduce the average amount of cash assistance per family from $250 to $150 for the 5,500 remaining families. These families are now being cut from the programme after only receiving ten months out of the twelve planned.
Monitoring after the June reduction revealed alarming coping strategies among affected families after they were cut from the cash assistance programme: 95% reduced household expenditure, 85% skipped rent payments, 70% resorted to loans, 55% had to move house to poorer and cheaper shelters, and 50% sold assets.
UNHCR anticipates similar or worse impacts for a much larger number of families now that the programme has ceased entirely. Without assistance, families risk eviction, hunger, untreated illness, and deepening poverty.
“UNHCR’s cash assistance programme in Iraq is truly lifesaving,” said Pauline Fresneau, UNHCR Deputy Representative in Iraq. “Without it, families will be forced into impossible choices especially as the winter months kick in. We urgently appeal to the international community to step forward and provide funding to allow the programme to continue into 2026.”
While UNHCR’s cash assistance programme remains an important source of support for refugee families, the agency also continues to work with the Government of Iraq to identify ways for vulnerable refugees who are not able to sustain a living independently to be included in national social protection systems, reducing their reliance on humanitarian aid. Refugees are not yet part of the Iraqi Social Safety Net, but a pilot project due to launch in Dohuk with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and World Bank will test their inclusion. This marks an important step toward furthering refugee inclusion in Iraq, particularly given the limited numbers of Syrian refugees expected to return home in the next twelve months and reflects Iraq’s broader transition from humanitarian response to development-focused solutions.
Iraq is currently host to over 345,000 refugees and asylum seekers, 90 percent of whom are from Syria.
ENDS
For more information, please contact
Lilly Carlisle
Head of External Engagement
Email: [email protected]
Rasheed Hussein Rasheed
Senior Communications Associate
Tel: +964 750 713 0014
Email: [email protected]