Natural disasters displace millions

ABOUT 42 million people were forced to flee their homes because of natural disasters around the world in 2010, more than double the number during the previous year, experts said yesterday.

One reason for the increase in the figure could be climate change, and the international community should be doing more to contain it, the experts said.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said the increase from 17 million displaced people in 2009 was mainly due to the impact of “mega-disasters” such as the massive floods in China and Pakistan and the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti.