The untold displacement story
Christian Aid Campaigner Jonathan Collier explains why there’s much more to the ‘refugee crisis’ than just people who have been forced to flee beyond the borders of their country. What can we do for people who are internally displaced?
Internally displaced people need to be seen and heard.
During Refugee Week (19–25 June), we draw our attention to all people around the world who have been forced to flee hardship in search of sanctuary and renew our committment to upholding their inherent dignity. This week falls just a month after Christian Aid Week, during which communities, churches and individuals rallied round the story of Nejebar, an Afghan refugee, fundraising, campaigning and praying for our global neighbours.
Ten years ago we published a report entitled Human Tide: the Real Migration Crisis, which highlighted the plight of millions of people forced from their homes by conflict, human rights abuses, climate change and infrastructure projects across the globe.
We shed light on the untold story of families forced to flee their homes without crossing a border, people whose fate is ignored by the international community — internally displaced people (IDPs).
At that time, there was no international organisation responsible for their wellbeing, and no specific legal framework to acknowledge their status and protect their rights.
This is still the case today.
A decade on, the migration crisis remains both topical and tragic —people displaced within their own countries remain woefully under-protected. Just as ten years ago the media focused on economic migrants and asylum seekers, so too now much of the talk about the movement of people is limited to refugees coming into Europe.
Beyond the acronym
While we must do more to uphold the rights of these and other people forced to leave their country, we can’t turn our back on the majority of families forced to abandon their homes — people for whom the acronym ‘IDP’ serves as a soulless label.
65 million people across the world live in conditions of poverty, insecurity and hardship because they are displaced.
More than 40 million of these are internally displaced, and are often the most sidelined. This needs to change.
The fate of refugees in Europe has been met with some sympathetic responses from governments and the UN, and from communities across the UK, but the plight of internally displaced people often continues to be ignored. Without action this will become a silent crisis.
We have worked with displaced people throughout our history, and in 2007 we issued a stark warning about accelerating rates of displacement in the 21st century. This warning remains in place — and is now even more urgent.
What the UN can do for internally displaced people
In September 2018, the UN meets to accept two ‘compacts’, or agreements, on refugees and migrants — but the vast majority of all displaced people are not currently on the agenda and risk falling between the cracks.
Internally displaced people need to be seen and heard.
As the agreements are drafted in the coming months, we call on all responsible states and the UN General Assembly to ensure that they include specific commitments to increase the protection of people who are internally displaced.
A collective call to action
This Refugee Week we are once again called to speak out for refugees and all who are forced to flee by the grave injustices of war, poverty and climate change.
As with ten years ago, we advocate for all displaced people who live forgotten and abandoned in their own countries.
And as we have done together throughout our long history, we boldly call for a radical love of our neighbour that knows no bounds, nor borders.
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