Refugees and Displaced persons can be caused by several factors. Discuss
Mooney (2005) defined Internally displaced persons are "persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border."
According to Mooney (2005) A refugee is a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country".
A person becomes a refugee only when he or she crosses an international border, whereas an internally displaced person remains within his or her country.
E. Mooney, "The Concept of Internal Displacement and the Case for Internally Displaced Persons as a Category of Concern", in: Refugee Survey Quarterly, Volume 24, Issue 3, 2005.
Up to 2012 the statistics showing displaced person and refugees were as follows Refugees 15.4 million refugees under UNHCR’s mandate 10.5, Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate4.9 million, and Asylum seekers 937,000, internally displaced persons 28.8 million which makes total of 45.2 million. Countries of origin of resettled refugees between 1993 and 2011, UNHCR resettled more than 800,000 refugees (UN 2013).
Most people who are displaced by conflict remain within the borders of their own countries. They are IDPs and globally number about 26 million. Some manage to cross an international border and are determined, under international law, to be refugees. There are about 14 million recognized refugees in the world, nearly 5 million of whom are Palestinian refugees registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the remaining 10 million who come under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). An estimated 50 percent of the 26 million people internally displaced by armed conflicts are children and youth under the age of 18.
Refugees and Displaced persons can be caused by several factors including the following.
Violations of human right, human right involve all basic needs that human is suppose to have in all spheres of life such as economical, social and political spheres. Example human has a right to life, eat, have good shelter, clothes, health care, have a right in political issue like voting, being given an opportunity to make decision and right to worship according to the believes. Violation of human right means going against what human suppose to have, this has an impact and accelerate the occurrence of refugees especially when people become active in trying to change their situation, but when those in power try to protect their own interest such as privileges, their wealth and their power they all too disregard even human life, this increases imprisonment, torture and disappearance of people, due to all these conflict occur and pose refugees exodus. Example in Nigeria the presence of Boko haram has affected people by forcing them to believes in Islamic religion which is not right for them and this is influenced by political issues, in Serial due to revolution of political issues has made people run away due to conflict, in Congo people are being killed because of rejecting what the (waharamiaji) so this has led to conflict which force people to run out of their country and considered as refugees to other nation.
Human right violation, is the situation whereby the right of human beings are not taken in consideration by not provide equal ratio to all member of the state, example of human right violation are minimum wages, no health insurance, child labour like that happens in northern Uganda whereby boys and girls are kidnapped to be solders and sexual slaves of commanders. Another example is genocide due to race, ethnicity, political and religion view for instance in Darfur war and the massacre of a large group of Kurdish by Saddam Hussein the former president of Iraq. Due to all this is whereby some persons forced to displace internally while for those who will cross border are tend to be refugees of a particular country which they are going to settle and have the human peace and the right of getting all basic needs at the right time, taking example of genocide due to race segregation between Hutu and Tutsi some refugees cross border to Tanzania simply because they lack their human right by ending be tortured by the government.
Famine and hunger. Food shortages accelerated by multiple factors such as prolong drought, civil war, pests and diseases which attack crops and destroyed farms and natural disasters such as storms, floods and earth quakes which destroyed infrastructures and blocking the flow and transportation of foods. Food is a human basic need if a certain areas or countries affected by food insecurity many negative impacts are recorded such as malnutrition and massive deaths. Famine and hunger causes persons displacement from their original land to other location with a large access of food, for example persons will be displaced from infertile land location to fertile land location in order to improve food productivity which serves their family life. According to FAO report from 2008 to 2010, more than ten million people were affected by famine and hunger in the Horn of Africa accelerated by drought, famine and hunger forced more than six million persons to displace from their original land to search foods and water (James, 2010). Also according to report in recently years, famine and hunger in Port land province in Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia forced millions of persons to flee their countries to Kenya and Tanzania and they live as a refugees in the refugees’ camp to find food assistances from international community and agencies (James, 2010). Famine and hunger is the main factors that forces person’s displacement and refugees in many Sub-Sahara African countries.
Religious factor; Religious means belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as a creator and governor of the universe. Religious cause the displacement of people especially when there is a religious conflict within a country. For example in Nigeria than 250000 people were displaced within as a result of religious violence in their country.
Wars; A culture of violence between individuals and countries is rising around the world, and the resulting effects of such violence provoke wars which leads to major population shifts. The phenomenon of global militarization is evident in the vast manufacture of and international trade in arms and in intensifying military expenditures worldwide for such fighting. According to Wright (2004), it is explained that the two significant characteristics of most wars today worldwide are that they are conducted within countries (except very few countries) and they have a considerable number of civilian deaths. People run away because their part of the country has become a battle zone and they need to seek safety. The most leading countries in producing refugees worldwide are Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Syria and others. This can be evidenced in Iraq where the war that started in 2003 has generated millions of refugees and internally displaced persons where most Iraqis have lost their homes and become refugees than the population of any other country. Also in order to escape the violence, more than 1.9 million Syrian refugees have fled the country to neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq from 2011 to present.
Climatic factor; climate means the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period. Earth climate is changing to the rate that has exceed most scientific forecast, some families and communities have already started to suffer from the negative side of climate change, and forced to leave their homes in search for new beginning. Climate change occurs naturally and also produced by human being due to climatic variability that is too much rainfall which results into floods and soil erosion and also long dry season which results into drought and other associated factors hence this situation makes people to leave their homes in search of viable live hood and safety. According to (UNHCR,2011) “Philippines torrential rains and storms displaces ten thousands of families living in and around Manila that is one million out of 90 million were refugees in their own land due to impact of extreme weather” this is crucial issue since people displaces and others becoming refugees causes some impact to the destination areas this can be beneficial or detrimental, for instance when people displaces to new places may be source of labor and market, also advancement in technology. In negative side, it leads to environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources due to increased population.
Natural disasters; Disaster is a sudden accident or a natural catastrophe that causes great damage or loss of life, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, mudslides, storms, extreme temperatures, wildfires, and volcanoes, are increasing in frequency and intensity. These situations have severe impact to people which forces them to leave their homes, land, communities, jobs and livelihoods which are at risk to the safe place either inside their countries as the internal displacement, or across the borders as refugees. The occurrence of a disaster leads to a temporary or permanent displacement of the population from their areas. For example the impact of natural disasters forced at least 14.9 million people to flee or leave their homes worldwide from 2011-2012. Research on displacement for each year since 2008 up to now shows displacement of millions of people caused by disaster each year (IDMC, 2011).
Government planning and policy, the government planning and policy are the major drivers for people displacements because of different reasons like either the government need the area for construction of different projects or the area is vulnerable to disaster like floods, land slide or areas nears to the conserved areas (Barro,1991). From the point of view persons displacement is affected by government planning especially for the need of areas for natural resource exploitation example if minerals can be discovered in a place where people live they will be displaced to other areas.
Recommendation, for the country to ensure sustainable development it must have clear population policy which defines a clear age marriage so as to avoid early marriage which is the problem in less developed countries example the Tanzania marriage act of 1971 stipulates a legal minimum marriage age of 15 for females and 18 for males this proved that there will be high fertility rate which will result on high population growth and may lead the displacement of people. But if the policy will be changed at least the age marriage to begin from 22 years it will help to reduce high rate of population which may result to unnecessary displacement. Good plans also promote sustainable development for the future; therefore the government must ensure that all plans both economic and social should go hand in hand with the need of the population to reduce displacement.
REFERENCES
United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees annual publications Global Trends, Statistical Yearbook and projected Global Resettlement Needs 2013
Mark Wyman; Dps: Europe’s Displaced Person 1945-1951. Cornell University Press 1998
Wright, R. (2004), Iraq refugees chased from home, struggle to cope. The Center for Migration Studies of New York; New York, US.
James, B.(2010) “Food insecurity and Malnutrition”. FAO Annual Report on Food and Nutrition in Sub- Sahara Africa 2010. Journal of Food and Agriculture, Nairobi
Reference; United Nations High Commission for Refugees,(2011) Division of International Protection Geneva, Switzerland.
Don Hinrichsen and Bryant Robey. (2000). Population and the environment: the global challenge. UN population fund.
IDMC/NRC and UNOCHA, (2011).Monitoring disaster displacement in the context of climate change and Displacement due to natural hazard induced disasters, Global estimates for 2009 and 2011.
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