A record 59.1 million people were displaced within their homelands last year, 4 million more than in 2020, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Thursday.  For the past 15 years, most internal displacements were triggered by disasters, with annual numbers slightly higher than those related to conflict and violence.  Weather-related events such as floods, storms and cyclones resulted in some 23.7 million internal displacements in 2021, mainly in Asia Pacific.  With the expected impacts of climate change, and without ambitious climate action, numbers are likely to increase in the coming years, the IOM said. Meanwhile, conflict and violence triggered 14.4 million internal displacements in 2021, a nearly 50 percent increase over the previous year.  The majority took place in Africa, particularly Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while Afghanistan and Myanmar saw unprecedented numbers of displacement.  Children and youth accounted for more than 40 percent of the total number of those internally displaced last year.  Also read: Ukraine war refugees top 5 million as assault intensifies

Bangladesh is the 6th largest migrant sending country and the 8th largest remittance receiving country, globally, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The IOM launched its flagship World Migration Report 2022 on Wednesday which revealed a dramatic increase in internal displacement due to disaster, conflict, and violence at a time when global mobility ground to a halt due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.  According to the report, there were around 281 million international migrants in the world in 2020.  Read: IOM seeks focus on perilous journeys by Bangladeshis to migrate The report focuses on developments in migration over the last two-year period, with an emphasis on providing analysis that takes into account historical and contemporary factors.  "We are witnessing a paradox not seen before in human history,” said IOM's Director General Antonio Vitorino. “While billions of people have been effectively grounded by COVID-19, tens of millions of displacement events have forced many others from their homes." The number of air passengers globally dropped 60 per cent in 2020 to 1.8 billion (down from 4.5 billion in 2019) while at the same time internal displacement due to disaster, conflict and violence rose to 40.5 million (up from 31.5 million in 2019).