Outside In | Displaced souls flooding Europe are only part of a global refugee crisis
New study says 27.8 million forced to flee their homes without crossing into a second country last year: 8.6m from conflicts, and 19.2m from natural disasters
As Europe’s leaders wrestle with political and social upheavals blamed on “unprecedented” floods of refugees from the Middle East, spare a thought for those countries wrestling with the “refugees” that we never see.
Whatever their anti-immigrant complaints, and no matter what the challenges faced, Europe’s populists should think themselves lucky.
A fascinating and depressing new examination of how conflict and natural disasters displace millions within countries, without them ever crossing into other countries and forcing us to notice, provides some perspective that even the grumpiest of anti-immigrant xenophobes should note.
According to the Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID), prepared by the Norwegian Refugees Council and its Norway-based sister, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Council, a total of 27.8 million people were last year forced to flee their homes without crossing into a second country.
The study shows 8.6m were escaping conflicts, and a sobering 19.2m fleeing natural disasters like earthquakes, floods or typhoons.
For comparison, Europe has suffered an influx of around 1.8m, with Germany accepting perhaps a half of them thanks to Angela Merkel’s controversial compassion – a compassion that is costing her and her party dear ahead of next year’s national elections.