MSF responds to an increasing number of caravans with refugees in southern Mexico in October 2024

Refugees, IDPs and people on the move

Putting refugees, IDPs and people on the move in context

At the end of 2023, an estimated 117.3 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced according to UN Refugee Agency's global trends report.

Refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs) and people on the move numbered 117.3 million at the end of 2023. As reported by the UNHCR, this constitutes a rise of 8% or 8.8 million people compared to the end of 2022 and continues a series of year-on-year increases over the last 12 years.

One in every 69 people, or 1.5% of the entire world’s population, is now forcibly displaced. This is more than double the 1 in 25 people who were displaced a decade ago and the most since World War II. There are many reasons people are forcibly displaced, including persecution, war and conflict, violence, human rights violations and serious natural disasters

With health and well-being jeopardised, the lives of the most vulnerable can be at risk. The majority are internally displaced people (IDPs), meaning they haven't crossed a border and have stayed within their country.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams work alongside people on the move at their points of arrival or during the treacherous journeys they undertake, inside and outside their countries.
 

Quick facts about IDPs and refugees
People returning from Sudan are arriving in alarming health conditions
Newly arrived, men, women and children arriving from Renk in Bulukat port in Malakal, Upper Nile State in South Sudan. The Bulukat transit centre hosts thousands of returnees living under temporary shelters. Their living conditions are deplorable as the now muddy terrain heightens their life with onset of diseases.
© Gale Julius Dada/MSF
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Who are IDPs?

An internally displaced person (IDP) has been forced to flee home but has remained within his or her country’s borders and so is not legally defined as a refugee.

How MSF assists refugees and IDPs

The Baobab House built by MSF, provides indoor and outdoor psychosocial support activities for refugees in Zimbabwe.
World Refugee Day 2023

Tackling mental health issues among refugees in Zimbabwe

youtube.com

Mental health activity manager Janet Mukurumbira explains how our programme is strengthening people’s resilience and coping mechanisms with the provision of psychological first aid, the formation of support groups and the use of distraction activities in Zimbabwe.

Watch now
 MFS' emergency project in Renk supporting Sudanese refugees
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How you can help

msf.org.za

By donating to MSF, you form part of, and enable, a network of individuals worldwide that help care for people and communities displaced or fleeing from their homes.

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