Record 38 million people internally displaced worldwide by conflict, watchdog says

[daring dude]

PHOTO: Syrian internally displaced persons arrive to a makeshift camp in the northern Syrian city of Idlib.(Mustafa Ozer: AFP)
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MAP: European UnionPHOTO: Millions of people from Iraq and Syria have fled areas controlled by Islamic State militants. (Reuters: Murad Sezer)
Iraq was the hardest hit, with 2.2 million people forced to flee inside the country from areas seized by the Islamic State group.

Around one million more people were internally displaced in Syria last year, bringing the total number of IDPs there to 7.6 million, or 40 per cent of the population.

In addition, some four million Syrians have become refugees.

People newly displaced in 2014
Region Total
Middle East 3,835,540
Central Africa 3,037,800
South Asia 1,408,190
West Africa 1,040,000

Europe, The Caucasus
and Central Asia 646,500
East Africa 446,250
The Americas 436,508
South-East Asia 134,086


Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
For the first time in a decade, Europe was also the scene of massive displacement, with 646,500 people internally displaced in Ukraine in 2014 because of fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Kiev forces.

Boko Haram's ruthless campaign to create an independent Islamic state in north-eastern Nigeria was also responsible for most of the nearly one million people internally displaced in the country last year and had forced tens of thousands more to flee in neighbouring countries, the report said.

The UN refugee agency meanwhile said many of those displaced end up becoming refugees.

"The longer a conflict lasts, the more insecure [displaced people] feel and when hopelessness sets in, many will cross borders and become refugees," said Volker Turk, UNHCR's assistance head of protection.

This despair has helped create the deluge of people risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean, where more than 1,750 people have perished so far this year alone.

"Despair drives people to take their chances and even risk dangerous boat journeys," Mr Turk said.

But war and political conflict are not the only reasons prompting people to flee their homes. More than half a million people displaced in Central America last year were running from criminals, Mr Egeland said.

"It is criminal violence [and] drug cartels that are driving people out by the hundreds of thousands," he said.

The IDMC said last year marked the third year in a row with record numbers of IDPs, dwarfing those seen at the peak of the Darfur crisis in 2004, the spiralling violence in Iraq in the mid-2000s, or during the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011.

Record 38 million people internally displaced worldwide by conflict, watchdog says - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)