Number of displaced people hits global high

March 24th, 2011 - 7:31 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt  

New York, Mar 24 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center of the Norwegian Refugee Council has reported that despite the fact that Africa has seen a decline in the number of internally displaced people (IDPs), 2010 saw the highest number of IDPs in the world.

IDPs in a way are disadvantaged because they do not have the same level of international rights that protect refugees displaced in other countries. According to the report issued on Wednesday, there were about 27.5 million displaced people in 2010. The report is released annually. The report also revealed that there were about 15 million refugees worldwide in 2010.

Part of the report said that, “This positive (African) trend gives us hope. Indeed, the African continent remains at the forefront of policy development in support of IDP rights.”

The number of displaced people in Africa was 11.1 million in 2010 representing about 4 percent decline in the previous year’s figure.

The report further explained that most of the displacements were due to conflicts in affected countries. The report identified that conflicts involving governments and armed men was by far the biggest contributor to IDPs. Conflicts involving international forces also ranked high as a factor.

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