46EUROPE AND
CENTRAL ASIA

5 COUNTRIES WITH MOSTNEW DISPLACEMENT(conflict, violence and disasters)
Ukraine12,000

GreeceConflict 12,000
Disasters 41,000
0.2% of the global total

FranceTajikistan
Kyrgyzstan

Every year, Europe and Central Asia have lower
numbers of new displacement than other regions andfewer people living in displacement. However, a totalof 53,000 new displacements were still recorded in2018, of which 41,000 were associated with disasters
and more than 12,000 with conflict. Almost 2.9 millionpeople were living in internal displacement as of the endof the year, the result of old and unresolved conflicts
and territorial disputes in several countries.
The latter figure includes 800,000 in Ukraine,where the country’s conflict entered its fifth year.
New displacements were recorded in October when
12,000 people were evacuated following an explosion
at an ammunition depot east of Kyiv, thought by thegovernment to have been an act of sabotage.247 The
majority were able to return home two weeks later.
Around 200 new displacements were also recordedin settlements along the contact line, where ceasefire
violations including shelling continue.
Around 344,000 people were living in protracted
displacement in Azerbaijan as a result of the country’sunresolved conflict with Armenia over the NagornoKarabakh region. An additional 301,000 IDPs were
estimated to have made partial progress towards
durable solutions, thanks to the government’s efforts
to relocate them into temporary housing. In Georgia,
293,000 people remain displaced because of longstanding territorial disputes in Abkhazia and SouthGRID
2019

9,200
5,400
4,700
3,600

Ossetia. Similar conditions were faced by around
228,000 people in Cyprus, who remain displaced as aconsequence of the deadlock between the Turkish andGreek Cypriot authorities over the status of the northof the island. Many of Europe’s IDPs have been living
in displacement for 15 years or more.
There is no up-to-date information about displacement inTurkey, but renewed fighting between the government
and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 2015 andsubsequent security operations triggered hundredsof thousands of displacements in the south-east of
the country. In 2018 the government began buildingnew homes in the region as part of an urban renewal
project and to compensate victims of the conflict.
Around 25,000 homes are thought to have been built
to date, but it is unclear who the beneficiaries will be.
Some of the housing offered to IDPs for compensation
are far from city centres, pulling them away from theirlivelihoods and social networks. 248 Several people
who remained in their homes in areas affected by theconflict, such as in the historic Sur district of Diyarbakir,
have also been evicted to make way for regeneration
initiatives.249
Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia accounted for an
important share of the region’s new displacements
associated with disasters. Days of heavy rain caused
flooding in Tajikistan’s southern province of Khatlon inMay, triggering more than 5,400 new displacements

47

Storms and floods triggered at least 5,400 new
displacements in France, including 1,500 in the Ile-deFrance area around Paris when the banks of the river
Seine burst in January.251 A riverine flood in the Piavebasin in Italy led to 1,300 new displacements inOctober, and flash flooding and storm surges pusheda similar number out of their homes in Greece in late
September when a storm struck the island of Evia andthe southern Peloponnese peninsula.
A short winter, warm spring and record-breaking
temperatures and below average rainfall in the summer
led to one of Europe’s most destructive wildfire seasonsin recent years.252 Approximately 3,000 homes weredestroyed in the Greek region of Attica in July, triggering
more than 7,000 new displacements.253 Wildfires in theValencia region in Spain triggered 2,600 in August.
The European parliament and Council of Europeapproved plans in December 2018 to improve the EU’s
management of disaster risk. The scheme, known as
rescEU, will create a reserve of civil protection capacity
to support national responses to the impacts of natural
hazards and epidemics. Member states will also sharenational prevention and preparedness plans to identify
and address possible gaps.254

Urban perspectives
Europe and Central Asia is one of the most urbanised
regions in the world. Seventy-two per cent of its
population live in towns and cities.255 It is a diverse
region, and as in other contexts, the drivers, triggers andimpacts of urban displacement vary across it, making
it difficult to generalise. From Spain to Uzbekistan,
the way national and local authorities respond to thephenomenon also vary widely.
Many IDPs in Ukraine come from urban backgrounds,
particularly cities such as Donetsk, Horlivka, Kramatorsk,Luhansk and Sloviansk.256 The country’s urban centres,
including the capital Kyiv, have also been important
destinations for those fleeing the conflict.257 Ukraine’s
towns and cities offer better access to services andincome-generating opportunities than rural areas, andmany IDPs have managed to establish themselves intheir new urban environments.258
Housing, land and property rights are challenges,
however, because Ukraine does not have a specificmechanism to process claims on properties affected by
the conflict.259 Nor does Ukrainian legislation list IDPs as
a group entitled to social housing. The local authorities
in Bakhmut, Kramatorsk and Slovyansk have madeefforts to address some of these issues with support
from the international humanitarian community.260
Local governments and international agencies havealso worked together to address displacement inKosovo, where policies have been put in place to help
municipalities support sustainable returns for people
displaced by conflict between 1998 and 2004. The
Regulation on the Return of Displaced Persons andDurable Solutions in Kosovo, for example, calls formunicipal action plans on the issue and emphasises theimportance of IDPs’ socioeconomic integration basedon their skills, gender, age and disabilities.261 It also aims
to improve cooperation between national and local
authorities to ensure return conditions are comparable
across the territory.262
In many parts of the region, however, urban IDPs face
marginalisation and unequal access to basic services.
Those in many post-Soviet countries receive lower quality
service provision than host communities, particularly
in terms of healthcare. 263 The dynamics of urban
displacement in Central Asian countries remain poorly
understood, but evidence suggests that urban renewal
and beautification projects have caused displacement
in cities including Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, Dushanbe
in Tajikistan and Tashkent in Uzbekistan.264The Council of Europe called in 2018 for renewed
action by states and regional bodies to addressinternal displacement in the region.265 Among many
recommendations, it highlighted the importance ofaddressing IDPs’ housing, land and property rights andproviding humanitarian assistance to those living in
protracted displacement. The role of local authorities
and cities in unlocking solutions will be central to
implement these national and regional commitments.

PART 1and damaging homes, roads, bridges and farmland.250
Landslides in the Jalal-Abad region of Kyrgyzstan
triggered almost 4,700 new displacements in April,and floods 1,500 in the Russian republics of Altai, Tuva
and Khakassia in March.