The wretched of the earth — the displaced and the dispossessed, the refugees and the migrants — now number entire nations. By the thousands they flee: civil wars, imperialist conflicts, poverty, pollution, hunger, the absence of water.
Climate migrants are, today, the smallest share. Yet the future scientists describe is deeply bleak, pointing to regions that will soon become uninhabitable due to rising temperatures and deepening drought.
In the meantime, we are witnesses to armed conflicts, violent episodes and persecution across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. People are running for their lives, seeking safety for themselves and protection for their children.
This trend is set to intensify. The Danish NGO DRC estimates that at least 4.2 million people around the world will be forced to leave their homes over the next two years. And that projection does not even account for the current war in the Middle East — meaning that the approximately 117.3 million internally displaced persons must also be added to that figure.
In its annual report, the DRC identifies the five countries that recorded the highest numbers of forced internal displacements in 2025: Ukraine, Myanmar, South Sudan, Nigeria and Mali.
The numbers speak for themselves, and they are terrifying. The planet is filling with the uprooted. Safe countries erect fences, convene summits and deliver declarations of humanitarianism. Migrants and the displaced are not their problem when they remain far from their borders — only when they wash up on their shores and appear outside their front door.
