“The needs of people are the same whether they are displaced within their countries or whether they are displaced to the next country,” said Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, in response to unprecedented human mobility around the world.

Mr. Maurer said the international community needed to address the requirements of internally displaced persons, in the same way that a high-level United Nations summit this week is discussing large movements of refugees and migrants.

“I think from a humanitarian point of view, it’s important to highlight the commonality of needs that people have who are displaced by violence and conflict, be they asylum-seekers, stateless people, refugees, migrants, or the internally displaced.”

Mr. Maurer spoke with International Peace Institute Senior Adviser Els Debuf as part of a Global Observatory interview series on international migration and the refugee crisis.

Other interviews in this series:

Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.