This two-year-old refugee is struggling to keep warm in sub-zero temps in Greece. Her family's temporary shelter is a concrete warehouse. Photo credit: Anna Pantelia/Save the Children 2017.

This two-year-old refugee is struggling to keep warm in sub-zero temps in Greece. Her family's temporary shelter is a concrete warehouse.

World Refugee Crisis Explained

The Worst Refugees Crisis Since WWII

Today, 26 million men, women, and children have been forced to flee their home countries due to conflict and persecution, many of whom are currently living in overcrowded conditions with limited or no access to healthcare. Now, with the impact that COVID-19 has had on the economy, refugee families will be pushed even further into poverty. 

Save the Children is committed to continuing to help millions of refugee children, regardless of ethnicity, religion or any other factor.

Since our founding in 1919, Save the Children has worked tirelessly to provide refugees with lifesaving assistance, improve access to education and quality health care, and protect children from exploitation. Whether in camps, on the move or in host communities, our caring staff helps refugee children from Syria, South Sudan, Burundi and other countries marred by violence and persecution. 

A donation to the Child Refugee Crisis Relief Fund will help refugee children around the world have the future every child deserves.

Help Refugee Children

What is the Refugee Crisis?

  • Worldwide, 22.5 million refugees, half of them children, have left everything behind to escape conflict, violence and persecution
  • Many have experienced profound physical and emotional traumas
  • Some are missing years of school, severely compromising their futures
  • Children travelling alone are especially vulnerable – if they make it at all
  • Others are starved out of their homelands due to drought and conflict

For more information, read the Refugee Children’s Progress Report and read What Is a Refugee?

Refugee Children Across the World

Save the Children has been responding to crises around the world for over 100 years. Since the refugee crisis erupted, we’ve been doing whatever it takes to help them survive and thrive in:

A young girl looks out of a tent while holding the canvas with her hand.

Syria

More than 10 years of destructive conflict in Syria has hit those who are least responsible the hardest – the nation’s children. We have been there for children throughout the war since 2012, and support Syrian refugees around the world. GET MORE FACTS

This 18-months-old girl was referred to the Save the Children stabilisation centre in South Sudan by health workers, as she was vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea. This is her second admission into the centre. She previously stayed in the centre for a month - longer than normal due to complications she had. Photo Credit: Magda Rakita/Save the Children 2015.

South Sudan

Children in the world’s youngest nation are enduring a deepening crisis. Since the outbreak of fighting in 2013, humanitarian needs in South Sudan have escalated to alarming levels and 2.1 million people have been forced to flee their homes. GET MORE FACTS

This five-year-old girl fled Myanmar with her family when their village was attacked. They’re now living in a makeshift camp in Bangladesh. Children account for some 60% of the Rohingyas who've arrived in Bangladesh since the sudden and rapid escalation of violence in Myanmar. Photo Credit: GMB Akash/Save the Children, October 2017.

Bangladesh

688,000 Rohingya men, women and children have crossed the border into Bangladesh, fleeing large-scale violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. We’re working to support their basic rights. GET MORE FACTS

Tamara*, a Syrian refugee, shivers in the cold outside her family’s shelter at an informal settlement in Lebanon. Photo credit: Ahmad Baroudi/Save the Children, March 2015.

Lebanon

One in four people in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee. We have reached over 530,000 Syrian refugees here, including 313,000 children, with critical protection, education, food and shelter assistance. FIND OUT MORE

A baby boy stands at the border between South Sudan and Uganda. His mother had been travelling with her older sister and younger brother. They walked for 4 days, only resting 2 hours a day. They left South Sudan because o the brutal conflict and also because school have been closed for a very long time. Photo Credit: Guilhem Alandry/Save the Children 2017.

Uganda

Uganda – a country already hosting more than 1 million refugees – has been straining to help an ever-growing number of South Sudanese refugees. Our Emergency Health Unit has been deployed to save lives in the wake of a cholera outbreak in the camps. LEARN MORE

A 3-year-old girl named Basmla, in her uncle’s home in Egypt. Photo credit: Victoria Zegler/Save the Children, December 2017.

Egypt

Egypt hosts more than 208,000 refugees. Over half are from Syria – others are from Iraq and several troubled African nations. We help refugees as well as the host communities straining to accommodate so many people in need. FIND OUT MORE

Just 10 years old, this girl fled Myanmar with her family when their village was attacked. They’re now living in a makeshift camp in Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh. Children account for some 60% of the Rohingyas who've arrived in Bangladesh since the sudden and rapid escalation of violence in Myanmar. Photo Credit: GMB Akash/Save the Children, October 2017.

Myanmar

More than 688,000 Rohingya men, women and children have fled to Bangladesh, following a rapid and alarming escalation of violence in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State. LEARN MORE

This is two-year-old boy is being treated for severe acute malnutrition in Ethiopia. He started getting sick two months back, but his health is getting worse. Photo Credit: Stuart J. Sia/Save the Children 2016.

Ethiopia

Over 847,200 refugees from countries facing conflict in East Africa now live in Ethiopia. Our relief workers are protecting, educating and feeding children in refugee camps as well as helping surrounding communities withstand a deadly drought that has devastated the food supply. LEARN MORE

A mother of four young children fled Burundi as violence escalated. They arrived in a refugee camp in Tanzania with no belongings or money – just the clothes they were wearing – because the militia stole the money she had. They are all suffering from malnutrition and are being treated at the therapeutic feeding clinic. Photo credit: Tom Pilston/Save the Children, July 2015.

Tanzania

Nearly 150,000 refugees have fled to Tanzania from Burundi, more than half of them are children. Our relief workers are protecting children, building schools, providing educational materials and teaching life skills to teens. LEARN MORE

An 18 month-old child hungrily eats therapeutic food from a pouch as tears stream down his face. This young child is being treated for malnutrition in his village in Turkana County Kenya. Community health worker Cecilia Akai gives him a MUAC test and ready to use high-nutrient peanut paste. Save the Children is supporting the Ministry of Health to effectively deliver and manage High Impact Nutrition Interventions (HINI) to mothers and children in Turkana County. Photo credit: Allan Gichigi/Save the Children, July 2016.

Kenya

Kenya is home to nearly half a million refugees, mostly from Somalia and South Sudan. We're working in Dadaab refugee camp to improve access to schooling and ensure that children are protected from harm. LEARN MORE

A group of girls squat in a circle and cover their faces with their hands.

Afghanistan

Afghan children have known nothing but conflict their entire lives. Since June, tens of thousands of Afghan refugees have fled their homes amid escalating violence, seeking safety and unsure of what their future may hold. LEARN MORE

Leice, a 3-year-old is being treated for typhoid fever at a Save the Children Health Center in a refugee camp. Photo credit: Mark Kaye/Save the Children, August 2016.

Burundi

More than 428,000 people have fled into neighboring countries since the post-election crisis in 2015. We are working in refugee camps, giving children the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. 

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