Record 55mn internally displaced world over
A key group that monitors internal displacement is reporting Thursday that violence and disasters — often caused or worsened by the impact of climate change — forced people to relocate within their countries more than 40 million times last year, the highest such tally in over a decade.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (DMC), in its latest annual global report, says a record 55 million people were living away from their homes but within their countries at the end of last year, as storms and floods, as well as both protracted and new conflicts, drove up the figures that have been growing for more than a decade. Sometimes people have moved two or three times.
The Geneva-based centre, which is part of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the number of internally displaced was more than twice that of refugees — those who flee to another country — at the end of last year. The group cautioned that the figures were likely a “significant underestimate” because Covid-19 travel restrictions impeded the collection of data.
“It’s shocking that someone was forced to flee their home inside their own country every single second last year,” said NRC secretary-general Jan Egeland. “We are failing to protect the world’s most vulnerable people from conflict and disasters.”
Of those displaced at the end of the year, some 48 million people had fled conflict and violence and 7 million had escaped from disasters, the group said.
The centre pointed to escalating violence and wider activity from extremist groups in countries like Ethiopia, Mozambique and Burkina Faso last year, and ongoing wars in places like Congo, Syria and Afghanistan.
It also noted intense cyclone seasons in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and long rainy seasons in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, saying such weather woes uprooted millions.
Overall, the highest number of internally displaced people last year was in China, which faces floods regularly and authorities encourage or require internal displacement to get out of the way of rising waters, followed by the Philippines and Bangladesh. More than 5 million people in China were forced into internal displacement last year.
Numbers may rise
IDMC director Alexandra Bilakk said it was “particularly concerning that these high figures were recorded against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Pointing out that movement restrictions obstructed data collection and “fewer people sought out emergency shelters for fear of infection”, she suggested the true figures were higher.
The pandemic had meanwhile exacerbated socioeconomic conditions for displaced people, she added.
Climate impact
Experts say that climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of such extreme weather events.
“We can only expect with the future impacts of climate change for these disasters to become more frequent and more intense, and therefore for the numbers of internally displaced people to grow,” Bilak said. It also warned that a convergence of conflicts and natural disasters was making the problem worse, with 95% of last year’s new conflict displacements occurring in countries vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. “Climate change and the overexploitation of natural resources may aggravate instability and conflict, which in turn may trigger displacement,” it said.