MS Risk Blog

New Report Shows Number of Displaced People

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According to a new report released in mid-May, the number of people internally displaced by conflicts around the world increased last year to a record 40.8 million people.

According to the new report, which was co-authored by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), some 8.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs) linked to conflict were recorded in 2015. This figure includes 4.8 million IDPS in the Middle East and North Africa. The report indicates that “displacement…has snowballed since the Arab spring uprising in 2010 and the rise of the Islamic State (IS),” with Yemen, Syria and Iraq accounting for more than half of the total. Jan Egeland, head of the NRC has disclosed that “this is the highest figure ever recorded and twice the number of refugees worldwide.”

Outside the Middle East, the countries with the highest numbers of people fleeing were Afghanistan, Central African Republic (CAR), Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Nigeria, South Sudan and Ukraine. Out of the top ten countries for IDPS, the report found that five – Colombia, DRC, Iraq South Sudan and Sudan – have featured on the same ranking every year since 2003.

The report also indicates that 19.2 million people were internally displaced last year by disasters, adding that India, China and Nepal accounted for the highest numbers with 3.7 million, 3.6 million and 2.6 million. Conflicts and natural disasters made for a total of 27.8 million new IDPs last year.

For the first time, the report also measured the numbers displaced by criminal violence associated with drug trafficking and gang activity, which, according to the report, is a problem that has remained “unquantified and unaddressed.” The report estimated that as of December 2015, there were a million IDPs in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico as a result of this type of violence.

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