Internal Displacement Due to Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean

Environmental disasters have been identified as a significant cause of human mobility. Particularly in developing regions, climate change is responsible for rising the frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters in the last decades, thus increasing the number of people who migrate within their countries. This chapter examines the magnitude and duration of internal displacements due to disasters in 18 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean between 2013 and 2015, and analyzes the quality of the Global Internal Displacement Database. Overall, 505 events of disaster were identified, which led to the internal migration of 4,217,737 people. The mean of displaced persons per event was 8351 (SD = 69,755) and the mean duration of the displacement was 11.9 (SD = 40.5) days. The primary reason for internal displacement in the countries examined was hydro-meteorological disaster related to climate change (51%). Results conclude that the Global Internal Displacement Database accurately identifies the starting date of internal displacements, but presents limitations to measure the duration of the displacements during the reference period.