Though they did not fall within UNHCR's original mandate, certain specific IDP groups were given UNHCR protection in recent years following requests by the UN secretary-general or the General Assembly.
But Florida's legislature has tightened up the motoring rules, making it mandatory for overseas visitors to carry an IDP as well as their national licence.
In an IDP camp near Sittwe, Mabia remembers the day her oldest son left to try to get a boat to Malaysia.
But the UK's leading car-broker, Holiday Autos, said that its US supplier, Alamo, would not insist upon an IDP.
Five years into the civil war in Syria more than 13.5 million people are still in need of humanitarian assistance inside the country, including 6.5 million internally displaced, the biggest IDP population in the world.
An IDP is not a refugee, however, but still has a right to seek to become one.ERIN MOONEYSpecial adviser to the representative of theUN secretary-general on IDPSGenevaSIR You forecast a rise in numbers of IDPs and also correctly point out that not enough is being done for these people, essentially refugees who have not crossed an international border.
On one side was a faction headed by the region's president, Sergei Bagapsh, and the foreign minister, Sergei Shamba, that was open to the possibility of IDP returns to Abkhazia in return for a non-aggression agreement and a withdrawal of Georgian forces from the Kodori gorge.
The other faction, led by Abkhaz premier Raul Khadjimba and security council secretary Stanislav Lakoba, was less willing to compromise on the IDP issue until Georgia accepts Abkhaz independence.
Few British motorists carry the IDP, because the vast majority of holidays and business trips are to places that do not require it.
The leading rental firm, Hertz, has confirmed its Florida offices would insist on an IDP as well as a national licence, and said: "It is the responsibility of the driver to obtain a permit".
Although some of the women have fled to IDP camps, HRW is calling on the UN peacekeepers - who are stationed nearby - to establish a permanent camp in the town in order to protect venerable civilians.
