May 22, 2013

Rejected from refuge: Displaced Malians face eviction from apartments they can no longer afford

Forced from their homes in the north and weary of months of living in limbo, displaced Malians who sought refuge in the southern cities are in an ever deteriorating situation. With no employment opportunities, and their savings exhausted, many are facing the threat of being forced to flee again.

The high cost of refuge as a startling reality

When I visited Bamako in October 2012, when the country was nine months into the crisis, the families who agreed to speak with me all shared a similar story. They had fled the violence that had engulfed the north, and then sold what was left of their belongings in order to pay for safe transport and refuge in one of the major towns in the country’s south.

Still shaken by the fear of what they had run from, worried about their lack of money to buy food and other essential goods and stranded from their livelihoods and support networks, they felt lost in a city where the skills they had gained in the north suddenly seemed useless. The high cost of living in this new and unfamiliar environment played on all of their minds.

Returning to the country this March, little had changed for these people. In the early stages of their displacement, many had initially stayed with friends and family members who had opened their homes to them despite the constraints the extra mouths placed on their family budget – one family I met had taken in over two dozen friends and relatives from the north! And when, inevitably, their friends and family could no longer cope with the extra burden, many had no option but to dip into their already meagre savings in order to rent their own accommodations.

Rumour had it that when the money inevitably ran out, some families are left with no choice but to skip out on the bill and find the next flat that would take them. This created negative perceptions towards the displaced amid the communities they were living in; tensions Mali could well do without at this time.

Action must be taken to reverse a disturbing trend

A recent Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) assessment of 380 families in Bamako confirmed the primary needs the IDPs described to me during my last two missions to the country: food, shelter, employment, education, water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH), protection and psychological support. Yet it also unearthed worrying statistics relating to housing: a quarter of those interviewed have indeed been moving “frequently” because they cannot afford the rent, or live in undignified conditions.

Even more troubling is that over a third of IDPs are living in fear of being evicted from their homes, kicked out of the safe refuge they so desperately need right now. Around one fifth indicated that they would return home if they can no longer support their families, regardless of the dangers they would face.

NRC’s Shelter Programme is doing sterling work to address this issue by providing better facilities for IDPs, safe sources of water for drinking and hygiene, as well as employment opportunities to help restore the dignity of people who are trapped in displacement, while simultaneously helping to reduce the tension and burden on the host communities.

More need to follow suit. The international community needs to widen its view from military activities and act quickly to address the issues faced by those living with the consequences of the conflict, both the IDPs and the hosts. More funding is needed to help provide secure and dignified housing for people displaced by conflict, and to promote employment opportunities for both IDPs and members of the host communities.

To read more about Malian IDPs’ housing concerns and other urgent needs, read NRC’s latest assessment surveys in Bamako and Segou (both in French), as well as IDMC’s country briefs on Mali.

Elizabeth Rushing

IDMC’s Country Analyst for Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo

May 17, 2013

Cyclone in Myanmar uproots violence-displaced in Rakhine State yet again

Right now, deadly weather is battering the people of Bangladesh and Myanmar as Cyclone Mahasen made landfall yesterday. With seven confirmed dead and one million people in Bangladesh ordered to evacuate, some of Myanmar’s most vulnerable, those who have already fled violence in the country’s north-west, have had to move again due to yet another disaster.

Ahead of the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction next week in Geneva, the situation of Myanmar’s violence-displaced adds ever greater urgency to the need for governments to improve disaster risk reduction efforts for IDPs vulnerable to further displacement.

Projected path of the Cyclone and IDP settlements in Myanmar likely to be affected. Credit: OCHA

A perfect storm of risk factors

Disasters often add to a perfect storm of risk factors that leads to escalating displacement figures. IDMC’s annual report on disaster displacement, released this week, highlights that one in four of all countries reporting new disaster displacement in 2012 are also conflict- or violence-affected. These people struggle against physical insecurity and lack of food, and often live in slums in areas highly exposed to floods and storm surges.

Up to 140,000 people displaced by inter-communal violence in 2012 live in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Most of them belong to the minority Rohingya and other Muslim communities. They reportedly live in overcrowded camps affected by numerous waterborne diseases, around half of which are in low-lying coastal areas. Conditions are especially dire in makeshift camps, where about 15,000 unregistered IDPs have had little or no access to assistance.

With Cyclone Mahasen predicted to make landfall on 16 May on the coast of Bangladesh, already suffering days of torrential rain and the subsequent destruction of homes in its coastal areas, the Government of Myanmar took action from 13 May to evacuate almost 78,000 to move to safer locations. With the help of UN agencies, many are expected to weather the storm; but their camps are likely to be devastated, leaving questions of where the displaced will go next.

The evacuation itself posed risks. On 13 May at least 50 IDPs from a camp in Pauktaw reportedly died at sea when their boat capsized.

Displaced again and again

Cyclones are no news in Myanmar. The population is exposed to a plethora of natural hazards – cyclone, flood, drought, earthquake, tsunami and wild fires. IDMC’s report this week reveals that a round 1.9 million people have been displaced by disasters in the country over the last five years (2008-2012).

Just last year, 86,000 were displaced by floods and a further 25,800 by an earthquake disaster in the country. In the south-west, people living in the Ayeyarwady delta face particularly high disaster risk. Many coastal communities became even more vulnerable following the devastation brought by the Cyclone Nargis disaster in 2008 along with Cyclone Giri that hit Rakhine state in 2010 that combined displaced over 1.6 million and 100,000 people, respectively.

The urgency to act to improve disaster preparedness and response

Government delegations will meet next week in Geneva at the annual Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, a forum for wide exchange on the latest developments with a view to strengthen coordination and implementation of disaster risk reduction. It is critical that among the outputs of the meetings is a vision to improve community-level disaster preparedness and response plans, as well as longer-term disaster risk reduction. This is necessary in all countries, but in particular – and often the lowest hanging fruit in terms of making real improvements quickly and cost-efficiently – those who are the most vulnerable to disasters.

This must include adequate protection and assistance for people already displaced by conflict and violence, as they are among the most exposed and vulnerable.

The situation of the Rohingya and others who had fled the violence in Rakhine State, who are being evacuated in the tens of thousands to escape their expose to an impending disaster, illustrates better than anything the urgency to act now.

Learn more about internal displacement in Myanmar

Learn more about disaster displacement

Anne-Kathrin Glatz, IDMC’s Country Analyst for Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

Michelle Yonetani, IDMC’s Senior Advisor for Disasters

Julia Blocher, IDMC’s Communications Officer

May 13, 2013

Displaced by disasters: 32.4 million people uprooted in both rich and poor countries

A new report released today by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reveals that 32.4 million people were forced to flee their homes in 2012 by disasters such as floods, storms and earthquakes. While Asia and west and central Africa bore the brunt, 1.3 million were displaced in rich countries, with the USA particularly affected.

People displaced by disasters worldwide in 2012

98% of all displacement in 2012 was related to climate- and weather-related events, with flood disasters in India and Nigeria accounting for 41% of global disaster displacement in 2012. In India, monsoon floods displaced 6.9 million, and in Nigeria 6.1 million people were newly displaced. While over the past five years 81% of global disaster-related displacement has occurred in Asia, in 2012 Africa had a record high for the region of 8.2 million people newly displaced, over four times more than in any of the previous four years.

In countries already facing the effects of conflict and food insecurity such as in Nigeria, Pakistan, and South Sudan, we observe a common theme. Vulnerability to disaster triggered by floods is frequently further compounded by hunger, poverty and violence; resulting in a ‘perfect storm’ of risk factors that lead to displacement.

There is also increasing scientific evidence that climate change will become a factor. A 2012 Special Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that there is some evidence to support the claim that “[d]isasters associated with climate extremes influence population mobility and relocation, affecting host and origin communities.”

The report highlights how disaster-induced displacement takes a toll in both rich and poor countries with the USA appearing among the top ten countries with the highest levels of new displacement, with over 900,000 people being forced to flee their homes in 2012. People in poorer countries, however, remain disproportionately affected and make up 98% of the global five year total.

In the US following Hurricane Sandy, most of those displaced were able to find refuge in adequate temporary shelter while displaced from their own homes. Compare this to communities in Haiti, where hundreds of thousands are still living in makeshift tents over three years after the 2010 earthquake mega-disaster, and you see a very different picture.

A critical component to improving community resilience and government responses to disasters is better data collection on people who have been displaced.

Currently the information available is biased, often only focusing on the most visible people who take shelter in official evacuation sites or camps. We need to know more about those who seek refuge with families and friends, people who are repeatedly displaced by smaller disasters, or those who are stuck in prolonged displacement following a disaster– not just those that make headlines.

Download the 2012 Global Estimates of people displaced by disasters here: http://bit.ly/12gpTfz

April 29, 2013

Record-high 28.8 million internally displaced people worldwide in 2012; 5-fold jump in Syria

Today, IDMC released its 2012 Global Overview of people internally displaced due to conflict and violence.

28.8 million people were internally displaced worldwide in 2012, a record high figure that includes a five-fold increase in the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Syria. Over 6.5 million people were newly displaced inside their home countries in 2012, almost twice as many as the year before. Because these people have not crossed a border, they are not refugees and do not benefit from international protection.

‘‘Governments are responsible for finding long-term solutions for their displaced citizens. However, these can only be realised when governments and the international community recognise that people forced from their homes require not only a humanitarian response at the height of a crisis, but sustained engagement until a lasting solution is achieved,’’ said Kate Halff, Director of IDMC.

See the world map of internal displacement in 2012:

This info-graphic highlights the key facts & figures of internal displacement:

IDPs are a lesser-known consequence of conflict, yet their needs are no less urgent. We want to bring their situation to light. Help spread the word – upload and share this Facebook timeline cover.

Learn more and download the full report at at www.internal-displacement.org

April 8, 2013

Solutions needed for Afghanistan’s displaced as international attention wanes

On mission to Kandahar, IDMC’s Country Analyst for Afghanistan contemplates the on-going security transition in the country, as internal displacement continues to increase. Consultations are underway for the development of a comprehensive national IDP policy, a welcome and timely development in a country where well over half a million people are now internally displaced.

IDP girls going to school in Nasaji Bagrami camp, an urban slum in Kabul. They are originally from Tagab district, Kapisa province.
Credit: IDMC/ C. Howard

Arriving at the ambitiously named ‘Kandahar International Airport,’ I felt apprehensive as we picked up our armoured vehicle and began our half hour drive into the city centre. This is my first visit to Kandahar since 2009 when I worked with the UN researching the growing number of civilians casualties caused by Afghanistan’s escalating armed conflict.

Colleagues reassured me that the number of security incidents in Kandahar had fallen significantly over the last year or so. There are few international combat operations taking place in the province these days, as foreign troops prepare to hand over responsibility for security to Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) across the country by the end of 2014.

A transition in security has not been reflected by a transition to stability

Last month, UN human rights monitors reported that 2012 saw a drop in the number of Afghan civilians killed and injured by the conflict, the first such decrease in five years.

Look a little closer though, and the fall in civilian deaths hides a different reality. According to the UN, there were 7,559 civilians killed and injured last year, as well as a nine per cent increase civilians unlawfully targeted and killed by armed opposition groups. While combat operations by international forces have dwindled, the indiscriminate use of improved explosive devices (IEDs) and a proliferation of pro- and anti-government armed groups mean thousands of families are threatened by pervasive conflict-related violence and human rights abuses.

Few provinces in Afghanistan are unaffected by displacement, though comprehensive figures don’t exist

According to Afghanistan’s National IDP Task Force, the number of people displaced by conflict inside the country was roughly half a million at the end of 2012. Difficulties profiling IDPs mean these figures are widely acknowledged as a gross under-estimate. During my visit, Afghanistan’s Deputy Minister for Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR) publicly conceded the true number of IDPs to be closer to 1.3 million. This would mean internal displacement is higher than at any time since the US intervention and ouster of the Taliban in 2002.

A growing number of IDPs have joined the tens of thousands of Afghan families now living in urban slums. In Kandahar, I had the opportunity to hear from IDPs who fled to city late last year from the north-western provinces of Ghormach and Badghis. Others IDPs said they had been displaced for several years and originally came from districts within Kandahar province itself. As in other parts of the country, nearly all complain of insufficient government assistance, inadequate shelter, unemployment, and, above all, lack of access to land to farm and live on. Many have lost family members during the conflict or seen their homes and livelihoods damaged or destroyed.

While some IDPs may wish to return home once they feel safe to do so, our research has found that roughly three quarters now wish to settle in the places where they have sought refuge.

Hope for an IDP policy in Afghanistan in 2013

Following years of inaction by national authorities, in early 2012 the government announced plans to develop a comprehensive national policy on internal displacement. Such a policy, once adopted and implemented, could help to prevent further displacement and find permanent solutions for Afghanistan’s IDPs. In a country where the dynamics of displacement vary considerably by region, success will largely hinge on whether the policy offers concrete and time-bound solutions that reflect local realities.

With a first draft now complete, provincial consultations on the policy’s scope and content are underway in Kandahar and in four other provinces. Monitoring the policy process and advocating for the swift adoption of Afghanistan’s first national IDP policy will be an important part of IDMC’s work in 2013.

IDP children in Nasaji Bagrami informal settlement, Kabul. Over 65% of Afghan IDPs are under 18 and growing numbers live in urban slums. Credit: IDMC/C. Howard

No one knows what the future will hold when foreign troops return home, not to mention what the outcome of upcoming presidential elections, also slated for 2014, will be. One thing is certain though: as the country’s displacement crisis looks set to continue, if not worsen, a comprehensive response for IDPs is required more urgently than ever.

Learn more about displacement in Afghanistan.

For more information about displacement in Afghanistan, read IDMC’s latest report, ‘Afghanistan: Comprehensive response urgently required as displacement crisis worsens.’

Caroline Howard

IDMC’s Country Analyst for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal

March 20, 2013

A refreshing UN seminar on the State of Palestine, but still no solutions in sight

IDMC’s Country Analyst for Palestine discusses a recent United Nations Conference on Palestine.

Last month, I was in Rome attending the United Nation Seminar on Assistance to Palestinian People at the headquarters of the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). This seminar was organised by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

Few options remain for Palestine; its very sustainability is questioned. Photo: IDMC, 2008.

The frankness of the representatives of the UN agencies and the engagement of the diplomats was a refreshing change, and was possibly a reflection of the increased openness to the idea of a State of Palestine.

Rather than tell some of the many compelling human interest stories that have come out of Palestine, the United Nation Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA)’s Robert Turner provided hard evidence to bring Palestine’s ability to subsist into question. He described how Gaza is being slowly pulled apart piece by piece; there is no clean drinking water, few building projects are granted permission by the Israel authorities, and plans for a much needed energy scheme and desalinisation plant look increasingly likely to fail.

Few concrete steps are taken to improve the lot of Palestinians

As I look back at this seminar I realise how much work still needs to be done to find durable solutions to the situation of displaced Palestinians. As the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Raquel Rolnik highlighted in her report on housing rights in Israel and the State of Palestine, the government is cutting housing subsidies in Israel while spending millions on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, a policy that is now proving detrimental even to Israelis.

Israel has faced condemnation by the UN and the EU that claim its actions violate the human rights of Palestinians and international humanitarian law. However, few concrete steps are taken to end these violations; no one is held accountable.

‘A nation of beggars’

Israel’s refusal to participate in the Universal Periodic Review process highlights the intransigence of the government. If it is not compelled to act now to find adequate, long-term solutions for Palestinians then the international community becomes, complicit in turning the State of Palestine, as one opinion piece called it, into “a nation of beggars”. (Read my previous blog, ‘Should the International Community Continue to Fund Rubble?’ for more on this).

The UN Human Rights Council’s regular review of Israel’s human rights record has been postponed but has to be reviewed before the end of 2013. In addition, the Fact Finding Mission on Settlements is due to be reviewed by the Human Rights Council on March 18^th. These key events will help determine whether the international community – in particular the countries that have been advocating for adherence to international law and principles – are either failing to live up to their responsibility, or are becoming a key part of the problem.

Learn more about internal displacement in Palestine here.

Guillaume Charron

IDMC’s Country Analyst for the Middle East and North Africa

March 14, 2013

IDPs don’t disappear, but the attention paid to them does

Nadine Walicki, IDMC’s Senior Country Analyst, analyses some of the world’s lesser known internal displacement crises. Based on her latest report, here she discusses her experiences of the North Caucasus, where thousands of people have been trapped in displacement for over 15 years.

Bamut, Chechnya. The two Chechen conflicts have all but destroyed the village, leaving 73 households instead of 1,914. The village water tank is in a mine-affected area but thanks to the ICRC, residents can now access water next to the local school. (Photo: ICRC/Marko KOKIC, October 2012)

A mother’s lament

When I was in the North Caucasus last year, I met an internally displaced woman, Zainap. When her husband died in the violence in Chechnya in 2000, she was forced to flee her home with her children. She fled to the neighbouring province of Ingushetia, which also borders Georgia. She was living in a former car factory with her children for 10 years.

Some of Zainap’s neighbours received compensation for their destroyed homes and went back to Chechnya. Her house was only partially destroyed, so she did not qualify for compensation. She wants to return, but cannot afford to rebuild her home and fears landmines. She is unable to move out of the car factory, relying on government benefits and odd jobs to survive.

The government of Ingushetia adopted a housing programme for IDPs several years ago, but it remains underfunded. Zainap is skeptical. “No one is paying attention to IDPs anymore, but we’re still here,” she told me.

15 years later, major obstacles to peace remain as attention to IDPs dwindles

IDPs in Russia have been all but forgotten in recent years. IDPs never had the full attention of the government, and those who were registered were deregistered en masse as early as 2002, depriving them of assistance. After all major IDP camps closed in Ingushetia, the authorities significantly decreased attention and funding to address the needs of displaced people, though federal budget transfers to the region have increased.

As the Russian economy has grown and reconstruction progresses in the North Caucasus, Russia has become increasingly eager to be regarded as a donor rather than a recipient of aid. One of the most significant donors, the European Commission, had included the North Caucasus on its strategic list of ‘Forgotten Crises,’ but by 2011 it phased out assistance to the region due to what it deemed to be socio-economic improvements and successful reconstruction. UN agencies, too, left the North Caucasus at the end of 2011 and will not be initiating any new projects for IDPs there.

The exit of the UN and others signals the loss of key support for civil society. As funding decreases, fewer surveys and assessments on IDPs are done; there is no authoritative figure on the total number, which makes it difficult to identify and meet their needs and help them progress towards durable solutions. Together with a series of laws adopted in 2012 imposing restrictions on civil society, NGOs may become less vocal on human rights issues, including internal displacement. The government should step up its efforts for IDPs following the departure of international organisations to build on positive results already achieved, and allow civil society to do the same.

Today, there are at least 29,000 IDPs in the North Caucasus, although the total number of IDPs in Russia alone is likely to be far higher (learn more here). This is because this figure excludes IDPs outside of the North Caucasus, many of those displaced within Chechnya or North Ossetia, and those who have lost or never had ‘forced migrant’ status issued by the government. IDPs in Russia have become more vulnerable over time after years of dealing with inadequate housing, limited income, and obstacles accessing basic services.

People living in protracted displacement suffer as much as IDPs in emergency situations

I was struck by this reality when I visited one temporary settlement in Ingushetia, where IDPs who were evicted from tent camps were living in makeshift homes built with scrap material for more than a decade. Residents showed me the remnants of a neighbour’s shelter that had recently burned down after a gas canister used for heating burst, one of many such fires. Many residents were visibly upset, but two in particular were enraged, yelling about the recent fire as well as other past injustices they had suffered. Many were still struggling to cope with abuses they suffered during displacement; for some the psychological trauma was never addressed and has worsened over time. They need specific help to regain their self-reliance.

A UNHCR box-tent for a vulnerable Chechen IDP family in Ingushetia. December 2005. Credit: UNHCR/T.Makeeva

A UNHCR box-tent for a vulnerable Chechen IDP family in Ingushetia. December 2005. (Photo: UNHCR/T.Makeeva)

This is not an isolated situation. The situation of IDPs and Zainap is similar to that of many people living in protracted displacement around the world. Attention to their plight wanes as post-conflict recovery starts to take hold and humanitarian situations emerge elsewhere.

Where governments and development organisations do not fill the gap of departing donors and international organisations, data on IDPs quickly becomes outdated and scarce. Without essential data on IDPs and their situation it is impossible to adequately address any displacement related vulnerabilities they may still have. Unable to fully rebuild their lives they are trapped in a cycle of vulnerability and poverty.

Given these constraints, how do we ensure the displacement-related needs of IDPs in protracted displacement are met?

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Learn more about displacement in the North Caucasus

Nadine Walicki

IDMC’s Senior Country Analyst for the Caucasus, Central Asia, Balkans, Cyprus and Turkey