Natural disasters last year caused three times as many displacements of people as incidents of conflict. That was one of the findings of a new report released in May by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), which recorded 40.5 million displacements globally during 2020.

According to the data, 9.8 million displacements within countries were the result of conflict and violence—mostly in Africa and the Middle East; 30.7 million were due to disasters. Among these disasters, nearly all displacements were weather-related, prompted by severe storms, floods, wildfires, or other events. In all, the number of displacements in 2020 was the highest in a decade and cumulatively there were more than twice as many internally displaced people (IDPs) as international refugees.

Afghanistan hosted the most people internally displaced at the end of 2020 due to disasters, at more than 1.1 million people. Another 3.5 million were displaced within the country due to violence. The largest number of IDPs due to conflict was in Syria, where nearly 6.6 million people were living away from their homes as of the end of 2020.

The IDMC’s findings are startling, but not necessarily unexpected. Extreme disasters have continued to spur displacement and international migration so far this year. In eastern India last week, more than 1.2 million people were evacuated ahead of Cyclone Yaas’s landfall, which came just days after Cyclone Tauktae struck the western coast. The country’s top meteorological official said the increasing frequency of intense cyclones in the Arabian Sea might be linked to climate change.

The Migration Information Source has published a collection of articles analyzing how climatic events and the impacts of climate change affect, prompt, and in some cases potentially halt migration. We also have a podcast on the subject, called Changing Climate, Changing Migration.

Of course, natural disasters are not necessarily related to a changing climate. As many as one million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) city of Goma have been ordered to evacuate following the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, which killed dozens. As in many cases, disasters, conflict, and broader issues of political and social instability combine to compel people to flee to safety; the eastern DRC has experienced protracted violence for years, and more than 2 million people had already been displaced by the conflict in the North Kivu province.

The IDMC’s report is the latest evidence that natural disasters are among the most pressing causes of displacement today. But it is also a reminder that the drivers of forced migration do not act in isolation. Often they compound.

Best regards,
Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
[email protected]