Geneva, May 20, (dpa/GNA) – Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the number of people who have had to flee to other regions within their own country rose sharply around the globe in the past year.
Some 55 million people worldwide were affected by such a fate at the end of 2020 – more than ever before, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reported in Geneva on Thursday.
A year earlier, 45.7 million were on the run from war and natural disasters in their own country.
In 2020, conflict and disasters triggered 40.5 million new internal displacements across 149 countries and territories, a figure which included people forced to move more than once.
“It’s shocking that someone was forced to flee their home inside their own country every single second last year,” said the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland.
“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,” IDMC director Alexandra Bilak added.
The IDMC said escalating violence in Mozambique and Burkina Faso as well as ongoing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and the Congo had led to massive new refugee movements, while natural disasters also led to displacements.
These included Cyclone Amphan in Asia and other heavy storms in Central America and the Caribbean, while in Africa and the Middle East, millions left their homes because of flooding.
GNA