We read and hear about refugees, by the millions, in camps dotted around the world or literally "on the move" seeking either a safe haven or a new home. All too often the quest for a new "home" ends in some sort of tragedy - witness refugees dying in trucks moving from country to country or people drowning as they try and cross the seas from Africa to Europe.
But there is another group of people seemingly totally overlooked - those who are displaced internally in a country. Relief Web reports:
"In 2007, the estimated number of people internally displaced as a result of armed confl icts and violence passed the 26 million mark. This is the highest fi gure since the early 1990s, and marks a six per cent increase from the 2006 fi gure of 24.5 million. The increase resulted from a combination of continued high level of new displacements (3.7 million) and a lower level of return movements (2.7 million) in 2007.
Three countries had signifi cantly larger internally displaced populations than any others: Colombia, Iraq and Sudan. Together they accounted for nearly 50 per cent of the world’s internally displaced people (IDPs).
At the end of 2007, Africa hosted almost half of the global IDP population (12.7 million) and generated nearly half of the world’s newly displaced (1.6 million). Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were the African countries worst affected by new internal displacement in 2007.
The region with the largest relative increase in the IDP population during 2007 was the Middle East, where a rise of nearly 30 per cent was mainly caused by a continuing deterioration of security conditions in Iraq."
But there is another group of people seemingly totally overlooked - those who are displaced internally in a country. Relief Web reports:
"In 2007, the estimated number of people internally displaced as a result of armed confl icts and violence passed the 26 million mark. This is the highest fi gure since the early 1990s, and marks a six per cent increase from the 2006 fi gure of 24.5 million. The increase resulted from a combination of continued high level of new displacements (3.7 million) and a lower level of return movements (2.7 million) in 2007.
Three countries had signifi cantly larger internally displaced populations than any others: Colombia, Iraq and Sudan. Together they accounted for nearly 50 per cent of the world’s internally displaced people (IDPs).
At the end of 2007, Africa hosted almost half of the global IDP population (12.7 million) and generated nearly half of the world’s newly displaced (1.6 million). Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were the African countries worst affected by new internal displacement in 2007.
The region with the largest relative increase in the IDP population during 2007 was the Middle East, where a rise of nearly 30 per cent was mainly caused by a continuing deterioration of security conditions in Iraq."
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