THE SOCIO ECONOMIC EFFECT OF FORCED MIGRATION IN YOLA LGA ADAMAWA STATE

THE SOCIO ECONOMIC EFFECT OF FORCED MIGRATION IN YOLA LGA ADAMAWA STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO STUDY

Internally displaced persons refer to people who flee their homes or places of residence for safety by virtue of circumstances beyond their control. The United Nations Guiding Principles on IDP‟s defines the IDP‟s as persons or group of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human – made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border (UNHCR, Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, 2005).

The above definition connotes the involuntary movement of people who flee from places of violence but remain within their national borders. A number of factors account for the involuntary movement of people to other locations for safety purposes. These include armed conflict, insurgency, intercommunal clashes, violations of human rights, and natural or human-made disasters etc. The description of internally displaced persons given above does not apply to people who willingly migrated to other regions of their country in search of better means of livelihood as a result of unfavourable economic condition.

According to Meedia (2016), forced migration refers to the coerced movement of a person or persons away from their home or home region. It often connotes violent coercion, and is used interchangeably with the terms “displacement” or forced displacement. Forced migration is a situation whereby people are uprooted from their homes by virtue of violent conflict resulting from political, social, economic, religious, cultural and ethnic differences. Whatever the cause may be, forced migration subjects the victims to untold hardship. Forced migration is not a new phenomenon as people across the globe have been forced to flee their homes for various reasons. According to Idra (1999) many generations have been displaced as a result of armed conflict worldwide and a significant number of people have been displaced more than once

Forced migration connotes coerced movement of a person or persons away from their home or home region. Someone who has experienced forced migration is a “forced migrant” or “displaced person” (Wikipedia, 2016). According to the International Organization for Migration, a forced migrant is any person who migrates to “escape persecution, conflict, repression, natural and human-made disasters, ecological degradation, or other situations that endanger their lives, freedom or livelihood.”

The term forced migration includes not only refugees and asylum seekers, but anyone forced to leave their homes by violence, persecution, development projects, natural disasters or man-made catastrophes. Stephen (2005) maintained that majority of the forced migrants flee for reasons not explicitly recognized by international refugee law, and many of them are displaced within their own country of origin.

THE SOCIO ECONOMIC EFFECT OF FORCED MIGRATION IN YOLA LGA ADAMAWA STATE