Displacement

Internal displacements wordwide

RESEARCH JUSTIFICATION

As part of our investigation into the deeper understanding of displacement, we have researched current global displacement trends to understand how they are already reshaping societies globally, and what are their key causes. Rising disasters, conflict, and climate pressures are driving more people from their homes and widening inequalities.

Displacement of all forms cause undue stress on existing systems, and need to be taken into account if we are to respond effectively and build coordinated, long-term resilience.

How is displacement impacting us now, and what are the implications for the future?

“At the end of 2024, an estimated 123.2 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and even its seriously disturbing the public order.”

- UN Refugee Agency, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2024

Forced displacement affects 1 in every 67 people globally

Displacement Trends

Displacement places unequal pressures on low and middle-income countries, which host the majority of the world’s displaced populations.

The latest UN analysis (UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2024, 2025), state that around 67% of refugees and others in need of international protection live in countries bordering their own, and approximately 73% are hosted by low- and middle-income nations.

These countries, often already facing economic strain, must absorb additional pressures on housing, healthcare, education, and employment systems, further stretching limited national resources and deepening existing inequalities.

The relevant adjacent example is the ongoing long-term displacement of Syrians, particularly to the neighbouring Arab nations, who have absorbed huge populations in 2024 alone.

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Displacement of Syrians to neighbouring arab nations

The adjacent graphs highlight the increasing population of global displacement, their current status, and the root causes.

The key causes of displacement are:

Conflict

Famine

Water scarcity

Climate change

Humanitarian disasters

Political or religious persecution

Economic instability

Limited access to employment

Limited access to healthcare and education

Rising Trend of Global Displacement

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Ukraine: (Reasons - conflict)

In 2024, the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia caused mass displacement, with 3.7 million people displaced internally and 5.1 million fleeing abroad.

Syrian Arab Republic: (Reasons - conflict)

By the end of 2024, 6.1 million Syrians were refugees or asylum seekers, and 7.4 million were displaced internally. Despite Assad’s fall, instability persists.

Lebanon: (Reasons - conflict)

In September 2024, escalating conflict between Hezbollah and Israeli forces displaced nearly one million people.

Sudan: (Reasons - conflict)

By the end of 2024, Sudan faced the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 14.3 million people uprooted, 3.5 million more than the previous year, nearly one-third of its population.

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Countries with extreme displacement

Democratic Republic of Congo: (Reasons - conflict)

Ongoing conflict between the Congolese army and armed groups has caused severe human rights abuses and one of the world’s largest displacement crises, uprooting 7.4 million people by end-2024.

Myanmar: (Reasons - humanitarian)

By March 2025, Myanmar faced one of the world’s most complex and prolonged humanitarian crises, with 3.6 million displaced internally and 1.5 million forced to flee abroad.

Afghanistan: (Reasons - conflict, humanitarian disaster)

By the end of 2024, Afghan refugee numbers fell by 10% to 5.8 million. Though conflict has eased, poverty, hunger, and poor public services persist, while host nations tighten policies against undocumented Afghans.

Palestine: (Reasons - conflict, humanitarian disaster)

By the end of 2024, the genocide and humanitarian crisis in Gaza had forced mass internal displacement, with much of the population uprooted amid destruction and severe shortages of food, water, and medical aid.

Dealing with Displacement

Climate and Displacement

Ways to Mitigate Future Displacement (UNHRC, Strengthening Climate Adaption and Resilience, 2025):

Integrate displacement prevention into national adaptation plans, providing early warning systems, social protection, and climate-resilient infrastructure.
Align humanitarian, development, and climate adaptation frameworks to address displacement risk holistically rather than as emergencies.
Plan inclusively for managed retreat, resilient housing, and livelihood diversification to reduce forced displacement from climate impacts.

Loss in Data Research

Reliable and timely data is essential for effective humanitarian action, yet according to the UNHCR (UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2024, 2025), maintaining critical datasets is increasingly at risk. Political influences often obscure the reality of certain situations for their own country's interests.

Weaknesses in data production reduce accessibility, accuracy, comparability, reliability, and timeliness, undermining the quality of key statistics. Much of the available data is incomplete, resulting in rough estimates, for example the Global Trends report states that only 26 countries report asylum seeker naturalisations. These gaps severely hinder the ability to plan and respond to crises worldwide, limiting the effectiveness of interventions and leaving displaced and vulnerable populations at greater risk.

Education and Resilience

“As emergencies and disasters, along with their destructive effects, are rising all over the world acquiring knowledge and its uses are regarded as the most effective way to prevent disasters or reduce its effects with the advancement in technology” – The Importance Of Education On Disasters And Emergencies

Education, and the sharing of knowledge and understanding, is a vital strategic tool in prevention. Disaster education aims to equip individuals and groups with the knowledge needed to take action and reduce their vulnerability to disasters. Over recent decades, extensive work has shown that trained people are better prepared and respond more effectively when crises occur (Sogand Torani, The Importance of Education on Disasters and Emergencies, 2019),. It is a functional, operational and cost-effective component of risk management, and evidence highlights the importance of ensuring that vulnerable people have opportunities to learn about the risks they face. While there are many ways to deliver education, no single method is inherently superior, what matters is that programmes are comprehensive, accessible and relevant.

As the UNHCR warns (UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2024, 2025), the accelerating climate crisis, worsening healthcare inequalities, and rising displacement reveal the urgent need for global systemic collaboration. As famine and water scarcity intensify, these interconnected issues will deepen, fuelling resource conflicts and mass migrations. Overcrowding and fear in times of distress can heighten divisions and persecution along political, racial, and religious lines. Only coordinated international action can address these escalating systemic challenges and build resilience against their far-reaching consequences. 

“We investigate states and corporate entities - including militaries, police forces, government agencies, and companies - for their violent acts, including repressive policing, civilian deaths in conflict, structurally racist policy-making, violence against migrants and refugees, and historical and contemporary colonial violence, including the destruction of traditional environments and life worlds.” - What We Do, Forensic Architecture

In a world increasingly shaped by increasing displacement, resource scarcity, and rising systemic inequalities, engaging with architecture and urbanism within the field of human rights is becoming an emerging field. In this context, spatial analysis has emerged as a crucial tool for accountability, transforming architecture into a means of exposing structures of harm and advocating for justice.

This approach has been most extensively developed by Forensic Architecture, a research agency founded in 2010 at Goldsmiths, University of London (Forensic Architecture, About Agency, accessed 2025). In just fifteen years, it has helped establish a field at the intersection of human rights, journalism, law, technology, and design. Its interdisciplinary team: architects, filmmakers, software developers, scientists, lawyers, and investigative journalists, uses architectural reconstruction, satellite imagery, and open-source investigation to reveal the complicity of government and corporate actors in human rights violations (Mathew Fuller, Eyal Weizman, Investigative Aesthetics, 2021).

The organisation’s impact lies not only in the evidence produced but in its challenge to established systems of governance. Operating within a decentralised ecosystem of spatial analysis, it works within the “open source revolution”, making their researching findings easily digitally accessible. Through this collaborative process, spatial evidence is translated into legal testimony, media exposure, and public visibility, and has been presented in courts, truth commissions, international tribunals, and cultural institutions (Mathew Fuller, Eyal Weizman, Investigative Aesthetics, 2021).

Forensic Architecture has faced criticism from some who question the legitimacy of its methods or the role of aesthetics in its investigations. Critics argue that the work can blur the line between artistic interpretation and evidentiary analysis, or that public exhibitions risk influencing perception before legal processes are complete (Art in America, When Does Artistic Research Become Fake News?, accessed 2025). The organisation maintains that transparency, collaborative verification, and rigorous methodology underpin its findings, and that visual and spatial techniques complement rather than replace conventional evidence (The Guardian, Our art deals with real injustices, some in Palestine: no wonder we faced opposition, accessed

2025).

As a relatively new and evolving field, Forensic Architecture signals a profound shift in understanding architecture’s role within global systems. While there are legitimate concerns that must be understood, if utilised ethically these research methods open up new possibilities for justice within structures on a global systemic scale.