Number of internally displaced people rockets by tens of millions in 2020

The number of internally displaced people rocketed to a total of 55 million in 2020, an increase of 40.5 million new displacements across 149 countries and territories, a report by the Swiss NGO, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, reveals.

“It is particularly concerning that these high figures were recorded against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic when movement restrictions obstructed data collection and fewer people sought out emergency shelters for fear of infection,” said the director of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, Alexandra Bilak.

The level of displacements was surprising even for experts.

“It’s shocking that someone was forced to flee their home inside their own country every single second last year. We are failing to protect the world’s most vulnerable people from conflict and disasters,” said the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland.

While overall people were mainly internally displaced due to conflicts and violence (48 million in 59 countries) and 7 million because of disasters, in 2020 the highest number of new displacements was triggered by disasters (30.7 million), and 9.8 million were caused by conflict and violence.

New displacements occurred mainly as a result of weather-related events including droughts, extreme temperatures, landslides, wildfires, floods, and storms (cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons) with the latter being the most prevalent amongst disasters.

Displacements occurring because of conflicts and violence were mainly the result of armed conflicts (7.5 million) with most new displacements as a result of this being in sub-Saharan Africa (almost 7 million) and the Middle East and North Africa (over 2 million) while the worst impacted was the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, and Ethiopia.

East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, the Americas, and sub-Saharan Africa witnessed the highest number of internal displacements because of disasters with the figures exceeding 12 million in South Asia and the Pacific, 9 million in South Africa, 4.5 million in the Americas, and 4.2 million in sub-Saharan Africa.

Analysed by country, the worst impacted were China with 5 million new internal displacements, the Philippines with 4.5 million, Bangladesh with almost 4.5 million, and India with almost 4 million.

In terms of age groups, 7.2 million displaced people were 0-4 years old, 12.8 million 5-14 years old, 10.5 million 15-24 years old, 22 million 25-64 years old, and 2.6 million over the age of 65.