Internally displaced person

Internally displaced people
Total population
70.5 million (2022)
Regions with significant populations
Europe7.2 million
East and Horn of Africa, and African Great Lakes2.6 million
Southern Africa2.6 million
Asia and the Pacific1.4 million
West and Central Africa1.3 million
Middle East and North Africa0.4 million
Americas0.2 million

An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders.[1] They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee.[2]

Villagers fleeing gunfire in a camp for internally displaced persons during the 2008 Nord-Kivu war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with internally displaced people during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Okie mother and children, internally displaced by the Dust Bowl in the United States in the 1930s.

In 2022, it was estimated there were 70.5 million IDPs worldwide.[3] The first year for which global statistics on IDPs are available was in 1989. As of 3 May 2022, the countries with the largest IDP populations were Ukraine (8 million),[4][5][6][7] Syria (7.6 million), Ethiopia (5.5 million),[8] the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5.2 million), Colombia (4.9 million),[9] Yemen (4.3 million),[10] Afghanistan (3.8 million),[11] Iraq (3.6 million), Sudan (2.2 million), South Sudan (1.9 million), Pakistan (1.4 million), Nigeria (1.2 million) and Somalia (1.1 million).[12] More than 85% of Palestinians in Gaza (1.9 million) were internally displaced as of January 2024.[13]

The United Nations and the UNHCR support monitoring and analysis of worldwide IDPs through the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.[1][14]

  1. ^ a b "Internally Displaced Persons". UNHCR. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  2. ^ IJR Center (10 October 2012). "Who is a Refugee".
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Мировые новости".
  5. ^ "UNHCR: Ukraine, other conflicts push forcibly displaced total over 100 million for first time".
  6. ^ "Needs Growing for over 8 Million Internally Displaced in Ukraine".
  7. ^ "Ukraine". IDMC. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
  8. ^ "Response to Internal Displacement in Ethiopia Fact Sheet – January to March 2022". ReliefWeb. 19 May 2022.
  9. ^ "Global displacement figures 2021". Norwegian Refugee Council.
  10. ^ "Needs mount as conflict in Yemen rages". UNHCR. 1 April 2022.
  11. ^ "Afghanistan situation". UNHCR. 2022.
  12. ^ "UNHCR – Global Trends –Forced Displacement in 2014". UNHCR. 18 June 2015.
  13. ^ "As Israel's Aerial Bombardments Intensify, 'There Is No Safe Place in Gaza', Humanitarian Affairs Chief Warns Security Council". United Nations. 12 January 2024.
  14. ^ IDMC at the UNHCR website Archived 2023-03-20 at the Wayback Machine: "At the request of the United Nations, the Geneva-based IDMC runs an online database providing comprehensive information and analysis on internal displacement in some 50 countries."

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