Kathmandu, May 11
Nepal has been ranked third in the list of countries where high number of people were internally displaced due to natural disasters in 2015.
A report prepared by the International Displacement Monitoring Centre, published on Wednesday says 2.6 million Nepalis were internally displaced in Nepal in 2015. The figure for India stood at 3.7 million and that for China at 3.6 million.
According to the report were 27.8 million new displacements in 127 countries during 2015, roughly the equivalent of the populations of New York City, London, Paris and Cairo combined. According to the report, of the total, 8.6 million were associated with conflict and violence in 28 countries, and 19.2 million with disasters in 113 countries.
“The vast majority of this displacement was caused by extreme weather events such as storms and flooding, but the April and May earthquakes in Nepal, which forced 2.6 million to flee their homes, were a stark reminder of the potential of geophysical hazards to precipitate mass displacements.”
The report says that resolving IDPs’ ongoing needs in Nepal will require long-term financial and technical engagement on the part of both federal and local governments and the international community.
Although the government has said it will provide money to rebuild houses damaged by the quake, vulnerable IDPs and undocumented citizens and owners without formal title deeds risk exclusion from the policy, says the report.
