Last year conflict and natural disasters displaced tens of millions of people at home, pushing the number of displaced persons to an all-time high.
Worldwide, 59.1 million people were registered as displaced by the end of 2021, 4 million more than a year earlier, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), part of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The record is expected to be broken again this year, given the 8 million Ukrainians who have been forced to leave their homes due to the war and reside elsewhere in their country. In addition, more than 6 million people have fled Ukraine.
Last year, 38 million new displaced people were added worldwide, with some people having to flee multiple times during the year. Violence and conflict were the cause of 14.4 million people, almost half more than in 2020. This concerns Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Myanmar, Yemen, Columbia and Congo.
Natural disasters cause most of the displaced. Last year there were 23.7 million, and 94 percent were attributed to weather and climate-related disasters, such as cyclones, monsoon rains, floods and drought. China, the Philippines and India were the hardest hit.
More than 25 million of the world’s displaced persons are under 18. “The long-term displacement trend will never be reversed unless safe and sustainable conditions are created for displaced persons to return home, integrate locally or settle elsewhere,” said IDMC Director Alexandra Bilak.