Exodus within Borders: An Introduction to the Crisis of Internal Displacement

This book aims to make available to the lay public a better understanding of one of the great tragedies of our times: the global crisis of internal displacement. As it draws to its close, the millennium finds some 25 million persons worldwide forcibly displaced from their homes by civil wars, internal strife, or gross violations of human rights--but still in their own countries. Were they to cross a border, many would have claim to protection and assistance by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. But the internally displaced have no such rights and no address to which to turn.

Based on Roberta Cohen's and Francis M. Deng's groundbreaking work, Masses in Flight: The Global Crisis of Internal Displacement (Brookings, 1998), this book offers, in summary and less technical form, the essential findings of that in-depth study: who and where the internally displaced are and what is being done for them, and how the international community can better organize itself to deal with a challenge that not only is humanitarian but also poses a threat to the security, stability, and economic well being of nations in all continents. And, Exodus within Borders offers one other important dimension. Through the powerful medium of photography, it shows just what it can mean to be driven from one's home with little but the clothes on one's back and no sure place of refuge.

David A. Korn is a former United States foreign service officer and ambassador and author of books on the Middle East, Africa, and human rights. Several photographs were provided by the renowned Paris-based Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado. Includes 33 photographs