This article aims to analyze the potential impact of forced internal displacement on international refugee migration, considering the relation between internal and international migration: Are today’s IDPs tomorrow’s refugees? It is likely that many refugees were forcibly displaced in their own countries before applying for asylum. Therefore, to develop this investigation, this article is divided into three sections. In the first section, it presents a general approach about internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, including definitions and the bases of its protection under international law. Afterwards, it analyzes data on international migration and on internal displacement. At the end, these data are compared and possible link between internal and international forced migration is analyzed.

This paper aims to analyze how international migration law protects internally displaced persons. First of all, there is a general approach about the history of International Regulations of migrations and about the concept of displaced person. Afterwards, it will be analyzed today's regulation of displaced persons by International Law. At the end, it is concluded that there are a few legal documents that protect these persons, and internationally there are only the Guiding Principles. Although all these principles are foreseen in many human rights treaties, new legal documents should be developed for the adequate protection of internally displaced persons.

This article analyzes the protection of forced migrants with irregular status, in times of a pandemic, based upon an analogy with cases of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on migrants’ rights. First,this article analyzes the relationship between the migration crisis and the health crisis. Next, it studies the vulnerability and legal protection of forced migrants, according to international and regional legal documentsand the decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. These documents and decisions are then interpreted, seeking to understand the protection of migrants in times of pandemic. This article concludes thatforced migrants with irregular status have the same rights as nationals and migrants with regular status during the pandemic period, but that the difficulty lies in the realization of such rights.

Today, international society faces the worst migratory crisis since World War II. According to the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees (UNHCR), by the end of 2016 there were 65.6 million people who were forced to leave their homes. Of these 65.6 million, about 40 million are internally displaced, nearly twice as many as 22.5 million refugees. That is, the number of people who were forced to flee but failed to cross the borders of their own country is much higher than those who have achieved. Therefore, the humanitarian crisis currently experienced by international society is extremely serious. Despite the high number of internally displaced people, in 2016 there was the first reduction, albeit small. It was the first reduction since the beginning of the Arab spring, when the current humanitarian crisis began. Based in this scenario, this article aims to analyze the factors that led to the reduction of the number of internally displaced people in 2016. Therefore, this article was divided into three sections. First, it aims to study the definition of internally displaced persons and their protection under international law. Afterwards, it shows and compares the data on IDPs between 2011 and 2016. At the end, it analyses the circumstances leading to a reduction in the number of internally displaced people in the period between 2015 and 2016.

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