UN agencies have begun cutting back their global aid operations following the 90-day suspension of all foreign assistance ordered by the Trump administration.

Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, responsible for providing life-saving assistance to the 122 million people forcibly displaced from their homes across 136 countries, sent out an overnight email to employees ordering an immediate clampdown on expenditure, including a 90-day delay in ordering new supplies except for emergencies, a hiring and contract freeze, and a halt to all international air travel, as the agency tries to adapt to the US funding freeze.

The new US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, claimed that the US freeze would not affect life-saving aid defined as “core medicine, medical services, food, shelter, subsistence assistance and supplies”, and that it was focused on aid programmes involving abortion, family planning or “gender ideology”. However, the initial impact of the freeze immediately cut humanitarian assistance across the board and around the world.