Rabat – Internal displacement due to natural disasters and violent conflicts has notably increased in the past year while global mobility experienced a standstill due to Covid-related travel restrictions, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has assessed in its latest report on the state of migration in the world.
The report, published today, established that “we are witnessing a paradox unprecedented in the history of mankind. While billions of people are effectively grounded by COVID-19, tens of millions more are internally displaced.”
According to the migration report, the number of air passengers worldwide decreased by 60 percent in 2020, going from 4.5 billion in 2019 to 1.8 billion in 2020.
Internal displacements due to disasters and conflicts registered a global spike, reaching 40.5 million in 2020, compared to 31.5 million in 2019.
The newly released report, the eleventh from IOM’s series on world migration, uses the latest global data to explain migration trends, as well as the emerging challenges the world is facing in terms of migration policies.
Read also: Nearly 80 Million People Worldwide are Forcibly Displaced
“We bring together key data, studies and analysis to show how long-term trends have been altered by COVID-19 and how migrants around the world have been affected,” said the editor of the IOM report, Marie McAuliffe.
“The document is unlike any previous report. So much has happened in terms of migration and mobility over the past two years,” she added.
The report stated that “the number of international migrants increased from 84 million worldwide in 1970 to 281 million in 2020.”
However, taking global population growth into account, the percentage of international migrants has only grown from 2,3 percent to 3,6 percent, the report specified.
IOM added that “due to COVID-19, the number of international migrants for 2020 was around 2 million lower than it would normally have been.”
For internally displaced people, who already face major difficulties in terms of housing and income, the impacts of the pandemic are often more significant.
Through the analysis of key migration trends, IOM’s mission is to help migrants and internally displaced people to benefit from all their fundamental rights and maintain a good quality of life.
