Amid the challenges brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, countries across the world continue to record a rise in the number of internally displaced people as a result of conflicts and disasters. Moreover, as the pandemic has affected all sectors, the already poor living standards of the internally displaced have worsened even further.
Internal displacement statistics
In 2020, the number of new internal displacements affected 40.5 million people across 149 countries, including over 23 million under the age of 18. In 2019, there were 33.4 million internally displaced people across 145 countries whereas, in 2018, the number of displaced people was 28 million across 148 countries. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has noted that the overall cost of displacement was US$20.5 billion in 2020 alone.
Worsening living conditions
“Conflict, violence, and disasters continue to uproot millions of people from their homes every year. Never in IDMC’s history have we recorded more people living in internal displacement worldwide than we do today,” says Alexandra Bilak, IDMC Director, commenting on the findings of the report “Severity of internal displacement”.
As this increase took place during the pandemic, COVID-19 has worsened all dimensions of displacement and seriously affected the livelihoods of those displaced. Following the significant economic impact of the pandemic, displaced people found it increasingly difficult to find work. In addition, they also experienced limited access to services and housing.
Overall, IDMC assessed the severity of the displacement on a scale from 0 to 2, where 0 stands for the lowest and 2 for the highest severity. Each category is assessed to be either low, meaning the scale spans from 0 to 0.49, medium – spanning from 0.5 to 0.99, high – spanning from 1 to 1.49, or very high – spanning from 1.5 to 2. It focused particularly on the following dimensions:
- Safety and security – Are the people displaced provided with a secure location free from persecution or human rights abuses, as well as free from active fighting and explosive hazards?
- Housing – Are the individuals displaced provided with secure, safe, and adequate shelters, able to withstand the local climate, and with protection from eviction?
- Livelihoods – Do people displaced have enough food? Do they have opportunities to generate income? Are the conditions sufficient to avoid involvement in prostitution, child labor, or child marriage?
- Services – Do individuals displaced, including children, have appropriate access to healthcare, water and sanitation, and schooling?
- Civic and social rights – Do displaced people have proper documentation, access to effective remedies, and justice for any harm? Can these people vote in elections in their place of displacement? Are the people displaced provided with family tracing and reunification mechanisms?
Fig.1. The distribution of countries across the categories of severity, from low to very high.
Source: Severity of internal displacement
At a regional level, the displacement conditions deteriorated the most in the Middle East and North Africa. With a population of internal displacement equal to 11.8 million, the region recorded a severity score of 1.53, an increase of 0.09 from 2019. On a country-level, Georgia and Azerbaijan recorded the least severity scores while Yemen and the Central African Republic both had the maximum severity scores.
Fig.2. Severity per country
