According to the Norwegian Refugee Council [NRC] and Internal Displacement Monitoring Center [IDMC], in 2016, over 31 million people worldwide had to migrate within their own country.

Numbers of internal displacement migrants in the country have been announced around the world, those who forced to leave their homes in 2016 due to civil war, conflict and natural disasters.

In the statement made by NRC and IDMC, attention was drawn to the fact that “one person forced to flee every second” due to conflict, violence and disasters, when asked to “intervene” urgently in the case of those who had to migrate within the country.

The statement also emphasized that the number of displaced persons in the country is much higher than those who have to leave the country.

According to the statement, the country with the highest number of people who have to leave their homes in the country is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2016, about 922,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were forced to leave their homes; 824 thousand in Syria, 659 thousand people in Iraq had to flee within the country.

According to the NRC, most of the domestic migration is victims of natural disasters. In 2016, 24 million people were forced to leave their homes because of floods, forest fires, and hurricanes, and it was reported that 7,400,000 people were displaced in China.

It was also warned that the number of people who had to emigrate due to climate change would increase.

IDMC, following only immigrants who do not cross borders, stated that ‘despite internal displacement being the starting point of many onward journeys, it has been overshadowed by the current global focus on refugees and migrants’. People in 125 countries around the world displaced within their own country but they do not take attention because they do not exceed the borders. (Hamza Adiyaman - ILKHA)