The phenomenon of internal forced displacement is global and expanding. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), in 2020, there were 55 million displaced persons in the world: 48 million were displaced by conflict and violence in 59 countries, an increase of 2.1 million with respect to 2019. Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Colombia concentrated the highest numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Many of the displaced, following IDMC data, were children younger than 15 years old. At present, the total forced displacement exceeds 100 million people while internally displaced persons account for some 60% of all people displaced (UNHCR 2021, 5). The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) characterized the last decade as one of “displacement” (UNHCR 2020b, 4).

Alex Mundt and Elizabeth Ferris argue that contemporary conflicts tend to generate more IDPs than refugees. The reasons are intuitive: in many cases, it is simply too difficult, dangerous or expensive to make it to the border of a neighboring country. And in every region in the world, borders are becoming more difficult to cross. Geography also plays an important role (Mundt and Ferris 2008, 3). Additionally, according to Hyndman and Giles, the geopolitical value of the refugees has continued to diminish since the end of the Cold War (Hyndman and Giles 2017, 9). As a result, refugees are sent to marginal sites, usually far from the borders of developed countries, where they are treated in socially unequal terms, or even made invisible by the state, as happens with IDPs.

Despite the overlapping realities on the ground between IDPs and refugees, international regimes and organizations continue to distinguish between the two categories, underscoring the causes of mobility and the type of protection. According to the Refugee Convention (1951), refugees are only those persons who have crossed an international border because of the legitimate fear of being persecuted for reasons of their race, religion, nationality, membership to a specific social group or political opinions. In comparison, the United Nations Guiding Principles establish that IDPs 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 (United Nations 1998, Point 2).