Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025

Regional Overviews

East Asia & Pacific

Geophysical hazards 
The region’s location on the Pacific Ring of Fire makes it the world’s most vulnerable to geophysical hazards, which triggered 207,000 displacements in 2024. The largest event took place in Japan on the first day of the year, when the most powerful earthquake to strike the mainland since the Great East Japan disaster of 2011 triggered 64,000 movements across nine prefectures. The disaster offered insights into the complexity of managing displacement and valuable lessons for the future.
 
Indonesia recorded 43,000 displacements linked to eight earthquakes. The most significant was a 6.5 magnitude event that destroyed homes and triggered 34,000 in East Java on 22 March. The country also accounted for 31,000 of the 71,000 triggered by volcanic activity globally. The eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki in East Flores in early November destroyed homes, schools and roads, triggering 13,000 movements. Some of those who fled were told not to return for risk of further activity. The country’s national disaster management agency was planning to relocate 16,000 people and compensate those worst-affected for their losses.
 
The largest displacement event linked to volcanic activity, however, took place in the Philippines. The Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, which had been monitoring the activity of the Kanlaon volcano in Negros Island region, recommended in early December that all people living within a six-kilometre radius of the crater be evacuated. This led to around 31,000 movements and the establishment of nearly 30 evacuation centres.
 
Conflict and violence leave record numbers displaced 
The number of people living in displacement as a result of conflict and violence in East Asia and the Pacific reached its highest on record in 2024 at 3.8 million. Around 93 per cent were in Myanmar, where fighting between the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) and an array of non-state armed groups (NSAGs) entered its fourth year. 
 
The conflict triggered around 1.2 million movements during the year, slightly fewer than in 2023. In Rakhine, fighting between the military and the Arakan Army, the main NSAG in the state, intensified, triggering 256,000. An additional 198,000 were recorded in Sagaing state and 156,000 in Kachin, which were some of the most affected states. 
 
Clashes between NSAGs and the MAF also erupted in August and September in the central region of Mandalay, triggering nearly 86,000 movements. It was the first time displacement was reported there since the start of the conflict in 2021. The fighting coincided with typhoon Yagi, heightening already significant humanitarian needs. Many IDPs lacked adequate shelter, health and sanitation facilities and education. The compounding impacts of conflict and disasters disrupted agricultural production and increased food insecurity. Some communities still recovering from cyclone Mocha in 2023 were badly affected.
 
Most of the country’s 3.5 million IDPs were living in makeshift shelters outside camps, and ongoing violence, road- blocks and the presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance impeded access to aid for many. About 46 per cent had been displaced between two and five times since the conflict broke out in February 2021, and 24 per cent more than five times.
 
The number of displacements triggered by conflict and violence in the Philippines was at its highest since 2017, when large-scale armed conflict erupted in the city of Marawi in the Mindanao region. Many of the 193,000 movements last year were associated with fighting between different factions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, one of the main NSAGs in Mindanao. Others were triggered by criminal and communal violence. In some cases, conflict and disasters overlapped as insecurity hampered some communities from fleeing floods.
 
There were at least 123,000 people living in displacement as a result of conflict and violence in the country at the end of the year, the vast majority in Mindanao. The figure fell between 2018 and 2021, but has risen again slightly since, pointing to the need to reinforce conflict resolution and peacebuilding mechanisms put in place after the conflict in Marawi.
 
Violence triggered more than 14,000 displacements in Indonesia’s Papua provinces, an increase on 2023, but limited data prevented a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon and its impacts. Conservative estimates pointed to around 57,000 people living in displacement as a result of conflict and violence at the end of the year, almost two-thirds of them since 2018. 
 
Communal violence in Papua New Guinea led to 12,000 displacements, significantly more than the 2,000 recorded in 2023 but far fewer than the 60,000 in 2022. Around 5,500 movements took place in Enga province, which was already hosting 20,000 people displaced by previous clashes. Communal violence erupted a number of times in recent years, reducing communities’ resilience, particularly in terms of food security. Women have also been exposed to gender-based violence.Around 84,000 people were living in displacement across the country as result of conflict and violence at the end of the year, and most of them had been doing so for long periods. 
 
Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Norwegian Refugee Council. Geneva, Switzerland.