Internally displaced persons, or IDPs, are among the world’s most vulnerable people. Unlike refugees, IDPs have not crossed an international border to find sanctuary but have remained inside their home countries. Even if they have fled for similar reasons as refugees (armed conflict, generalized violence, human rights violations), IDPs legally remain under the protection of their own government –
even though that government might be the cause of their flight. As citizens, they retain all of their rights and protection under both human rights and international humanitarian law. At the end of 2014 it was estimated there were 38.2 million IDPs worldwide, the highest level since 1989, the first year for which global statistics on IDPs are available. The countries with the largest IDP populations were Syria (7.6 million IDPs), Colombia (6 million), Iraq (3.6 million), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2.8 million), Sudan (2.2 million), South Sudan (1.6 million), Pakistan (3.3 million), Nigeria (1.2 million) and Somalia (1.1 million).[1]
