An estimated 26 million people uprooted by conflict or human rights violations remained in their own countries last year, far more than the 16 million who crossed borders the previous year and became refugees under UN protection, a report by a European aid organization released on Friday said.
The 26 million who sought shelter elsewhere in their country — becoming internally displaced people or IDPs — are the responsibility of their own governments. But the report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center said some governments were unable or unwilling to help them, and in eight countries authorities didn’t even acknowledge they have been uprooted.
“The alarming size and condition of the world’s IDP population shows that national and international efforts to diminish and protect these vulnerable groups have largely failed,” said Elisabeth Rasmusson, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council which established the Monitoring Center in 1998 at the UN’s request.
“It requires a redoubling of our international effort to make a significant difference to the world’s internally displaced people,” she told a news conference at the International Peace Institute launching the annual report.
The findings showed that an estimated 26 million people were still displaced within their countries last year, the same number as in 2007 and the highest figure since the early 1990s.
“Although the number of refugees rose to 16 million by the end of 2007, it remained 10 million below the number of IDPs worldwide,” the report said, adding that the 2008 refugee figures are due out in June.
The 26 million IDPs include 4.6 million people who fled their homes as a result of new conflicts and violence in 24 of the 52 countries monitored by the center — an increase from 2007 when 3.7 million people were newly displaced.
The report said three countries account for 45 percent of the world’s IDPs: Sudan with 4.9 million displaced; Colombia with between 2.7 and 4.4 million; and Iraq with 2.8 million.
“The IDPs are the real human face very often of conflict and disaster,” UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said at the launch. “Too often, I think, they are the forgotten remnants of crises.”
Calling the number of IDPs “very worrying,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres predicted an increase in the number of displaced as a result of the global financial crisis.
“The impact of the crisis on the most vulnerable countries and the most vulnerable populations is now starting to bite hard,” he said.
One sign of hope for IDPs, he said, was that the African Union (AU) had drafted a convention to protect and help the millions of internally displaced people on the continent. The convention is expected to be adopted at an AU summit in October.
“I hope that it can be replicated in other parts of the world,” Guterres said, “and probably one day, it will be possible to bring all things together and have a global convention on internal displacement.”
The report said that the biggest new displacement last year was in the Philippines, where 600,000 people fled fighting between the government and rebel groups in southern Mindanao.
Massive displacements were also seen in the following areas: 550,000 people in Sudan; 500,000 in Kenya; at least 400,000 in Congo; 360,000 in Iraq; more than 310,000 in Pakistan; more than 270,000 in Colombia; 230,000 in Sri Lanka; and more than 220,000 in India.
At the same time that the 4.6 million were fleeing, the report said some 2.6 million IDPs in 18 countries were reported to have returned to their homes or native areas last year. At least 400,000 went back in Congo, 400,000 in Uganda, 350,000 in southern Sudan, 300,000 in Kenya and 250,000 in the Philippines.
All these countries — except Uganda — also experienced new large-scale displacements last year, the report said.
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