The UN Refugee Agency will per­ma­nent­ly close its na­tion­al of­fice in Trinidad and To­ba­go on 31 Au­gust 2025 due to glob­al fund­ing short­falls. The Port of Spain of­fice will stop serv­ing the pub­lic from 25 Ju­ly. All op­er­a­tions will be man­aged re­mote­ly by the UN­HCR’s Mul­ti-Coun­try Of­fice in Pana­ma, sup­port­ed by a min­i­mal staff pres­ence lo­cal­ly.

“This de­ci­sion was not tak­en light­ly,” UN­HCR said in a pub­lic no­tice. “Re­cent glob­al events have deeply im­pact­ed fund­ing for hu­man­i­tar­i­an and de­vel­op­ment or­gan­i­sa­tions, in­clud­ing UN­HCR and our part­ners. Al­though needs re­main high, fi­nan­cial re­sources have de­clined, forc­ing bud­get re­stric­tions glob­al­ly, re­gion­al­ly, and lo­cal­ly.”

To re­duce mis­in­for­ma­tion and re­spond to grow­ing con­cerns, the agency has cre­at­ed a Q&A sec­tion on its Trinidad and To­ba­go web­site, of­fer­ing ver­i­fied up­dates and prac­ti­cal in­for­ma­tion for refugees and asy­lum seek­ers.