Geneva, Switzerland – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva issued a shocking report on Thursday. The report revealed the scale of the escalating humanitarian crisis inside Iran, confirming that more than 3 million people have been displaced from their homes since the outbreak of direct military confrontations between Iran on one side, and the United States and Israel on the other.
Disastrous figures on the thirteenth day
As the Middle East war entered its thirteenth day, specifically on March 12, 2026, the UNHCR, based on its initial field assessments and monitoring of population movements, announced that between 600,000 and one million Iranian families were now internally displaced within Iran. The UNHCR estimated that this large number of families effectively translates to approximately 3.2 million people currently living in conditions of forced displacement, having fled the horrors of airstrikes and large-scale military operations.
Warnings of worse to come
The UNHCR statement noted that this wave of internal displacement is the fastest and largest in the region in decades. The intensity of the aerial bombardment and the targeting of vital infrastructure have led to the evacuation of entire neighborhoods and strategic border cities.
The international organization warned that the continuation of military operations without any prospect of a ceasefire will inevitably lead to a doubling of these numbers. It emphasized that “the capacity of temporary shelters inside Iran has reached its limit.”
The UNHCR stressed the need to protect civilians. It also emphasized the importance of securing humanitarian corridors to deliver relief and medical aid to millions of displaced people suffering from severe shortages of basic necessities.
The UNHCR further expressed its deep concern that internal displacement could escalate into a cross-border refugee crisis if the conflict spreads to more densely populated areas. It affirmed that the international community faces a critical moral and humanitarian test to prevent this rapidly spiraling catastrophe from worsening.
