7. Internally Displaced Persons

Some people who are in danger leave their countries to seek protection. They may do so as part of a large outflow of people and find refuge in a neighbouring country. Or, they may make individual journeys to other countries, sometimes at a considerable distance from their homes. However, there are people who may have been forced to flee their homes for the same reasons as refugees but they have not crossed an international border. These people are called internally displaced persons.

By the end of 2000, there were approximately 11.5 million refugees around the world who had fled their countries for a variety of reasons and an even greater number of internally displaced person, between 20 – 25 million, who had abandoned their homes for similar reasons. Increasingly the majority of current conflicts in the world involve disputes within countries between political or ethnic groupings rather than wars between countries. Given this trend, the number of persons caught up in conflicts in their own countries and forced to leave their homes is set to increase.

For example, after nearly 20 years of civil war in Sudan between the northern Islamic government and the southern Christian movement there are now nearly four million internally displaced people in the country. The population faces famine, execution, abduction and rape. However, it often seems that the world has forgotten these people and their desperate need for help.

The list of countries, which have suffered internal conflicts and where internally displaced people have suffered, is long. It includes Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iraq, Liberia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Tajikistan.

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The Rights of Refugees and Displaced Persons

Photo: East-Timor, 1999. Displaced people emerging from the jungle find shelter in the stadium. Source: International Committee of the Red Cross