11 Million More People Internally Displaced in 2014

Twice more IDPs than refugees worldwide

More than 38 million people worldwide are currently internally displaced (IDPs) due to conflict and violence, a rise for the third consecutive year, according to a report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC).

Last year alone, 11 million more people were displaced, the equivalent of 21 people every minute. “Never in the last 10 years of IDMC’s global reporting, have we reported such a high estimate for the number of people newly displaced in a year,” said the report.

“As of the end of 2014, 38 million people around the world had been forced to flee their homes by armed conflict and generalized violence, and were living in displacement within the borders of their own country. This represents a 15 per cent increase on 2013, and includes 11 million people who were newly displaced during the year, the equivalent of 30,000 people a day.”

11 Million people were newly displaced in 2014, or the equivalent of 30,000 fleeing each day from conflict and violence. Image source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC).

There are now twice more internally displaced people (IDPs) than refugees worldwide, says the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Refugees are people who have crossed an international border escaping danger and who have international legal status. However, there is no coherent international protection structure for IDPs, says the UN agency.

Prolonged conflict and violence in five countries—Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria—accounted for 60 per cent of new displacements in 2014, including 2.2 million people in Iraq who fled areas that had been captured by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and more than one million South Sudan, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo each.

About 77% of the world’s IDPs live in just 10 countries: Syria (7.6 million or 19.90%), Colombia (6.04 million), Iraq (3,38 million), Sudan (3.1 million), DR Congo (2.76 million), Pakistan (1.9 million), South Sudan (1.5 million), Somalia (1.11 million), Nigeria (1.08 million) and Turkey (953,700).

IDMC reported two new countries for the first time in 2014: Ukraine, where conflict displaced 646,500, and El Salvador, with 288,900 IDPs.

“Data on IDPs tends to focus on those living in camps, camp-like settings and collective centres, who are acknowledged to make up only a small fraction of the displaced population. Increasing numbers of IDPs also flee to urban areas where they are largely invisible among the urban poor, and these two factors mean that overall this report is likely to understate the true scale of displacement,” says the report.

[Additionally, no data is available on the IDPs in several countries, including Sri Lanka. —Editor]

The reported 38 million total does not reflect the tens of millions of people who have been internally displaced by natural disasters, says the report.

Global Disasters Uprooted Tens of Millions in 2012

Floods, storms and earthquakes forced 32.4 million people to flee their homes

At least 32.4 million people were forced to flee their homes in 2012 by floods, storms and earthquakes,  according to a new report released by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC).

8 Mega Disasters, events causing more than one million
people to lose their homes, accounted for 68% of all global
displacement in 2012. —IDMC

• Asia and west and central Africa were the worst affected regions, however, at least 1.3 million were displaced in rich countries, with the USA particularly affected, said the report.

• “98% of all displacement in 2012 was related to climate- and weather-related events, with flood disasters in India and Nigeria accounting for 41% of global displacement in 2012. In India, monsoon floods displaced 6.9 million, and in Nigeria 6.1 million people were newly displaced. While over the past five years 81% of global displacement has occurred in Asia, in 2012 Africa had a record high for the region of 8.2 million people newly displaced, over four times more than in any of the previous four years.”

Top ten countries with most displacement in 2012. Source: Global estimates 2012| People displaced by disasters

• United States was among the top ten countries with the highest levels of new displacement, with nearly one million people being forced to abandon their homes in 2012.

• Displacement in poorer countries accounted for 98% of the global five year total, the report said.

In 2012, an estimated 32.4 million people in 82 countries
were newly displaced by disasters; 144 million over five years

Top 20 countries with the most displacement over 2008-2012. Source: Global estimates 2012| People displaced by disasters – IDMC

• “In countries already facing the effects of conflict and food insecurity such as in Nigeria, Pakistan, and South Sudan, we observe a common theme” says Clare Spurrell, Chief Spokesperson for IDMC. “Here, vulnerability to disaster triggered by floods is frequently further compounded by hunger, poverty and violence; resulting in a ‘perfect storm’ of risk factors that lead to displacement.″

A villager sits in front of his destroyed house after floodwaters receded on July 22, 2012 in Beijing, China. Photo: ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFoto-Press via Getty Images/IDMC report.

The vast majority of this displacement (98 per cent in 2012;
83 per cent over five years) was triggered by climate- and
 weather-related hazards such as floods, storms and wildfires.
2012 had the lowest level of dis-placement due to geophysical 
disasters for five years; around 680,000 people were displaced
by earthquake and volcanic eruption disasters.

DISASTER CALENDAR – May 14, 2013 — 
SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,033 Days Left 

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,033 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human  History
• The countdown began on May 15, 2011 …

GLOBAL WARNINGS

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID PLANETARY DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs