Conflict and disaster forced more than 33 million people to flee within their own countries last year, putting them at greater risk amid the global Covid-19 pandemic, monitors have said.
The new figure brings the total number of people living in internal displacement to a record 50.8 million, according to a report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) is far higher than the around 26 million who have fled across borders as refugees. "IDPs are often highly vulnerable people living in crowded camps, emergency shelters and informal settlements with little or no access to healthcare," IDMC director Alexandra Bilak said in a statement. "T