The Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) published annual statistics that calculated 45.7 million people were internally displaced by the end of 2019 due to violence in 61 countries – making them refugees in their own countries. Disasters had further displaced 5.1 million people in 96 countries. The stats for 2019 are record breaking and the highest number ever recorded; in 2018, the stats were 10 million lower.
Concerns over internal displacement have become even more pressing in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Following a high-level UN panel held in February to address the problem and find long-term solutions, Alexandra Bilak, the IDMC director, said she had hoped internal displacement would receive more global attention in the ongoing year. “We were so hoping this year would be really the wake-up call to the international community, with the new high-level panel on internal displacement. We thought this year would be the year of internal displacement,” said Bilak. She said it was too early to determine the full impact of the coronavirus on displacement and the efforts to address it, but was worried about future funding.