What You Need to Know About Internally Displaced People Around the World

Over 41 million people were internally displaced last year due to conflict and violence, according to a new report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. This is a record high and excludes an additional 17 million people who were internally displaced due to a natural disaster.

When we say "internally displaced" we mean people who are forced to flee their homes, but do not cross an international border. This distinguishes "internally displaced persons," or IDPs, from those would be considered international refugees. This distinction is significant because, while there is a robust international law obligating governments to treat international refugees in a certain way, there is not much that international law or norms governing internal displacement.

My guest today, Alexadra Bilak, is director of the Internal displacement Monitoring Center which just released its flagship report on global displacement. In our conversation, Alexandra Bilak describes the drivers and trends in in…