The world’s most neglected displacement crises

Every year, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) publishes a list of the ten most neglected displacement crises in the world. This is the list for 2018. 

Although humanitarian assistance should be based on needs, and needs alone, some crises receive much more attention and support than others. Why is one person’s suffering an international priority – resulting in conferences, mediation efforts and donations – while another person’s suffering, in another part of the world, goes unnoticed?     

This neglect can be a result of a lack of geopolitical interest. Or the people affected may seem too far away and too difficult to identify with. Neglect can also be a result of competing political priorities and a lack of willingness to compromise, creating a protracted crisis and growing donor fatigue. 

Our goal, in issuing this list, is to focus on the plight of people whose suffering rarely makes international headlines. People whom politicians have forgotten or disregarded. People who currently do not receive the support and protection they deserve and need. 

We believe that more information and knowledge about these people, and the crises surrounding them, is a first important step towards change. 

We have created our list based on the following three criteria: lack of political will, lack of media attention and lack of economic support. All* displacement crises resulting in more than 200,000 displaced people have been analysed – 36 crises in total.  

Lack of political will. This includes both a lack of political will among armed parties on the ground to protect the rights of civilians and engage in peace negotiations, and the international community's unwillingness or inability to find political solutions.

The existence of a peace process, a decrease in the number of displaced people, and other positive developments are used here as indicators of some level of political will. The lack of such processes, a deterioration of the situation for civilians, and increased displacement indicate the opposite.  

Lack of media attention. Various factors determine whether or not a crisis receives media coverage. The level of media attention is not necessarily proportional to the size of the crisis. Even when the media does report on a conflict, the situation for civilians may be overshadowed by coverage of war strategies, political alliances and fighting between armed groups. 

When developing our list, we measured media attention in 2018 using Meltwater’s media monitoring figures. To compare media attention with the size of a displacement crisis, we divided the potential media reach of articles about the crisis, by the number of people displaced.  

Lack of economic support. Every year, the UN and its humanitarian partners create funding appeals to cover people’s basic needs in countries affected by large crises. But, the extent to which these appeals are met varies greatly. We used the percentages of the appeals raised in 2018 to indicate levels of economic support. However, it should be noted that the real picture may be skewed by a tendency to ask for less funding for a crisis when there is an understanding that it is next to impossible to attract the actual amount required. 

*Due to lack of information and reliable figures, we have not been able to analyse the situation in China and North Korea.

Last year's list.

2: DR CONGO

Fighting between armed groups over control of territory and resources, destruction of schools and homes and attacks on civilians created significant humanitarian needs. To compound  this already complicated crisis, an outbreak of Ebola was declared in August 2018.  

While conflict and disease raged in the east, there was a gradual de-escalation of violence in the Greater Kasai region and in Tanganyika province, the epicentres of the humanitarian crisis in 2017. More than 1.3 million people returned to their places of  origin in the Greater Kasai region alone. 

Still, many were unable to cover their basic needs. A total of 770,000 children were suffering from malnutrition in Greater Kasai because of a lack of food last year, according to UNICEF. The UN also reported a 70 per cent increase in acute hunger between 2017 and 2018 across the country. 

International attention and donor funding have not kept up with the escalating needs. An international donor conference held in April 2018 failed to raise sufficient funds, and by the end of the year donors had contributed less than half of the money needed for the humanitarian response. International media attention throughout the year focused mainly on the outcome of the delayed presidential election and the Ebola outbreaks – pushing one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet further and further into the shadows of the world’s consciousness. 

4: BURUNDI

Some have since returned home, despite the tense situation in Burundi, but four years after violence first broke out, more than 350,000 refugees are still living in displacement.  

Most Burundian refugees sought safety in neighbouring  Tanzania, while others fled to Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Due to a lack of media attention and inadequate funding from the international community, Burundian refugees are unable to cover their most basic needs. They live in overcrowded camps, don’t have enough to eat, and are threatened by waterborne diseases.

In 2018, only 33 per cent of the humanitarian appeal for Burundian refugees was funded. This funding gap makes it the lowest-funded refugee crisis worldwide (UNHCR). The appeal to  support people affected by the humanitarian crisis inside Burundi itself was also severely underfunded.  

Tanzania has generously hosted many Burundian refugees over  the past years, but in January 2018 the country withdrew from the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) and said it would discourage new asylum seekers from coming. Many  refugees feel that they are under pressure to return, but that it is still too dangerous to go back home. 

6: VENEZUELA

An estimated 7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Venezuela, according to the UN. Food is less available and affordable, and many people now depend on the delivery of  subsidised food to meet their needs. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that around 3.7 million Venezuelans  suffered from undernourishment in 2018. 

Around 3.4 million refugees and migrants have already left the country, with 2.7 million of them currently living in Latin America and the Caribbean countries, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

The long and challenging migration route has left displaced Venezuelans with major needs. One of the most crucial challenges they face is obtaining some form of official status that allows them to get a job, send their children to school, and access important services like healthcare. Having official status also means that people are less vulnerable to trafficking, labour exploitation and other abuses that are detrimental not only to migrants but to the communities they join. 

With stretched resources and an increasing number of arrivals, the risk of discrimination and xenophobia is increasing. The humanitarian response in the region continues to be insufficient in its speed and scale and there is a common concern about the lack of resources to respond to the situation as it develops. 

The political game in Venezuela has received a lot of attention, and many countries have an interest in how it develops. However, those involved have so far shown little willingness to compromise. 

8: LIBYA

Since 2011, which saw the departure of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi after more than four decades in power, a breakdown in law and order has created a security vacuum and a proliferation of armed violence. While the pace of displacement slowed through 2018, indiscriminate attacks, localised clashes, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detentions from preceding years left 221,000 people displaced by the end of the year. 

The humanitarian appeal for Libya was only 26 per cent funded last year, making it the least well-funded of all the countries in this year’s neglected crisis list. Of the 823,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance, around half are Libyan citizens and half are refugees and migrants from other countries. The latter group are particularly vulnerable to rights violations and extreme violence including various forms of gender-based violence, robbery, extortion, forced labour, kidnapping, disappearances and killings. The direct and indirect impact of violence has had severe implications for people in Libya. Many have experienced physical harm, psychological distress and trauma. 

In recent years, global attention has focused predominantly on  Libya’s position as a major transit country for migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean for protection and economic opportunities in Europe. However, this attention has failed to prompt action geared towards improving safety and stability within the country. 

While the number of people crossing the Mediterranean has  reduced, those migrants currently in Libya are left with very few adequate or humane means to secure their survival. Substantive support for Libyan institutions is vital to enable the country to protect all people within its borders – both Libyan and non-Libyan. 

10: PALESTINE

Palestine is an unusual inclusion in a neglected crisis list. Violations of international law and their humanitarian consequences are reported by the world’s media with some regularity, and the pursuit of a political solution remains – ostensibly – high on the agenda of many UN member states. Nevertheless, a political solution seems further away than ever before. 

The situation for many Palestinians continues to deteriorate. In the Gaza Strip, the World Bank describes an economy in “free fall”, and basic services are crippled by power cuts for up to 20 hours a day. In the West Bank, legislation passed in 2018 threatens to strangle the ability of individuals and rights-based organisations to mount a legal challenge when Palestinian homes in certain areas are destroyed. 

In 2018, against this backdrop of collapsing public services and a crumbling economy in the Gaza Strip, and an increasingly coercive environment for Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the United States government announced funding cuts of USD 200 million for bilateral aid to Palestine. The 2018 humanitarian appeal received just 45.7 per cent of the funding required to help the 2.5 million people in need.