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A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced persons who have fled their home country, but there are also camps for internally displaced persons. Usually refugees seek asylum after they've escaped war in their home countries, but some camps also house environmental- and economic migrants. Camps with over a hundred thousand people are common, but as of 2012 the average-sized camp housed around 11,400. They are usually built and run by a government, the United Nations, international organizations (such as the International Committee of the Red Cross), or NGOs. There are also unofficial refugee camps, like Idomeni in Greece or the Calais jungle in France, where refugees are largely left without support of governments or international organizations.
Contents
- Facilities
- Arrival
- Housing and sanitation
- Food rations
- Economy work and income
- Camp structure
- Democracy and justice
- Security
- Health and health care
- Reproductive Health
- Freedom of movement
- Duration and durable solutions
- Africa
- Asia
- Middle East
- Europe
- References
Refugee camps generally develop in an impromptu fashion with the aim of meeting basic human needs for only a short time. Facilities that make a camp look or feel more permanent are often prohibited by host country governments. If the return of refugees is prevented (often by civil war), a humanitarian crisis can result or continue.
According to UNHCR, the majority of refugees worldwide do not live in refugee camps. At the end of 2015, some 67 per cent of refugees around the world lived in individual, private accommodations. This can be partly explained by the high number of Syrian refugees renting apartments in urban agglomerations across the Middle East. Worldwide, slightly over a quarter (25.4%) of refugees was reported to be living in planned/managed camps. At the end of 2015, about 56 per cent of the total refugee population in rural locations resided in a planned/managed camp, compared with 2 per cent who resided in individual accommodation. In urban locations, the overwhelming majority (99 per cent) of refugees lived in individual accommodations, compared with less than 1 per cent who lived in a planned/managed camp. A small percentage of refugees also live in collective centers, transit camps and in self-settled camps.
In spite of the fact that 74 percent of refugees are in urban areas, the service delivery model of international humanitarian aid agencies remains focused on the establishment and operation of refugee camps.
Facilities
The average camp size is recommended by the UNHCR to be 45 sqm per person of accessible camp area. Within this area the following facilities can usually be found:
Schools and markets may be prohibited by the host country government in order to discourage refugees from settling permanently in camps. Many refugee camps also have:
In order to understand and monitor an emergency over a period of time, the development and organisation of the camps can be tracked by satellite and analyzed via GIS.
Arrival
Most new arrivals travel distances of up to 500 km by foot. The journey can be dangerous, e.g. wild animals, armed bandits or militias, or landmines. Some refugees are supported by IOM, some use smugglers. Many new arrivals suffer from acute malnutrition and dehydration. There can be long queues outside the reception centres and waiting times of up to two months are possible. People outside the camp are not entitled to official support (but refugees from inside may support them). Some locals sell water or food for excessive prices and make large profits with it. It is not uncommon that some die while waiting outside the reception centre. They stay in the reception centre until their refugee status is approved and the degree of vulnerability assessed. This usually takes two weeks. They are then taken, usually by bus, to the camp. New arrivals are registered, fingerprinted and interviewed by the host country government and the UNHCR. Health and nutrition screenings follow. Those who are extremely malnourished will be taken to therapeutic feeding centres and the sick to hospital. Men and women receive counselling separate from each other to determine their needs. After registration they are given food rations (until then only high energy biscuits), receive ration cards (the primary marker of refugee status), soap, jerrycans, kitchen sets, sleeping mats, plastic tarpaulins to build shelters (some receive tents or pre-fabricated shelters). Leaders from the refugee community may provide further support to the new arrivals.
Housing and sanitation
Residential plots are allocated (e.g. 10m x12 m for a family of 4 to 7 people). Shelters may sometimes be built by refugees themselves with locally available materials, but aid agencies may supply materials or even prefabricated housing. Shelters are frequently very close to each other, and many families frequently share a single dwelling, rendering privacy for couples nonexistent. Camps may have communal unisex pit latrines shared by many households, but aid agencies may provide improved sanitation facilities. Household pit latrines may be built by families themselves. Latrines may not always be kept sufficiently clean and disease-free. In some areas there is limited space for new pits. Each refugee is supposed to receive around 20 liters of water a day. However, many have to survive on much less than that (some may get as little as 8 litres per day). There may be a high number of persons per usable tap stand (against a standard number of one per 80 persons). Drainage of water from bathroom and kitchen use may be poor and garbage may be disposed in a haphazard fashion. There may be few or no sanitary facilities accessible for people with disabilities. Poor sanitation may lead to outbreaks of infectious disease, and rainy season flooding of latrine pits increases the risk of infection.
Food rations
The World Food Programme (WFP) provides food rations twice a month: 2,100 calories/person/day. Ideally it should be:
Diet is insensitive to cultural differences and household needs. WFP is frequently unable to provide all of these staples, thus calories are distributed through whatever commodity is available, e.g. only maize flour. Up to 80 or 90% of the refugees sell part or most of their food ration to get cash. Loss of the ration card means no entitlement to food. In 2015 the WFP introduced electronic vouchers.
Economy, work and income
Research found that if enough aid is provided, the refugees' stimulus effects can boost the host countries economy. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has a policy of helping refugees work and be productive, using their existing skills to meet their own needs and needs of the host country, to:
"Ensure the right of refugees to access work and other livelihood opportunities as they are available for nationals... Match programme interventions with corresponding levels of livelihood capacity (existing livelihood assets such as skills and past work experience) and needs identified in the refugee population, and the demands of the market... Assist refugees in becoming self-reliant. Cash / food / rental assistance delivered through humanitarian agencies should be short-term and conditional and gradually lead to self-reliance activities as part of longer-term development... Convene internal and external stakeholders around the results of livelihood assessments to jointly identify livelihood support opportunities."However, refugee hosting countries do not usually follow this policy and instead do not allow refugees to work legally. In many countries the only option is either to work for a small incentive (with NGOs based in the camp) or to work illegally with no rights and often bad conditions. In some camps it is accepted that refugees set up their own businesses. Some refugees even became rich with that. Those without a job or without relatives and friends who send remittances, need to sell parts of their food rations to get cash. As support does not usually provide cash effective demand may not be created
The main markets of bigger camps usually offer electronics, groceries, hardware, medicine, food, clothing, and cosmetics, and services such as prepared food (restaurants, coffee–tea shops), laundry, internet and computer access, banking, electronic repairs and maintenance, and education. Some traders specialize in buying food rations from refugees in small quantities and selling them in large quantities to merchants outside the camp. Many refugees buy in small quantities because they don’t have enough money to buy normal sizes, i.e. the goods are put in smaller packages and sold for a higher price.
Camp structure
According to UNHCR vocabulary a refugee camp consists of: settlements, sectors, blocks, communities and families. 16 families make up a community, 16 communities make up a block, four blocks make up a sector and four sectors are called a settlement. A large camp may consist of several settlements. Each block elects a community leader to represent the block. Settlements and markets in bigger camps are often arranged according to nationalities, ethnicities, tribes and clans of their inhabitants, such as at Dadaab and Kakuma.
Democracy and justice
Elected refugee community leaders are contact point within the community, for both community members and aid agencies. They mediate and negotiate to resolve problems, and liaise with refugees, UNHCR and other NGOs. Refugees are expected to convey their concerns, messages or reports of crimes, etc. through their community leaders and are therefore considered to be part of the disciplinary machinery. Many refugees mistrust them and there are allegations of aid agencies bribing them. Community leaders can decide what a crime is and thus whether it is reported to Police or other agencies and they can potentially use their position to marginalize those refugees from minority clans. Refugees have been allowed to establish their own 'court' system which is funded by charities. Elected community leaders and the elders of the communities provide an informal kind of jurisdiction in refugee camps. They preside over these courts and are allowed to pocket the fines they impose. Refugees are left without legal remedies against abuses and can’t appeal against their own ‘courts’.
Security
Security of a refugee camp is usually the responsibility of the host country and is provided by the military or local police. The UNHCR only provides legal protection. However, local police or the legal system of the camp-hosting countries are not usually responsible or also not willing to get involved in things that happen inside the camps. In many camps refugees create their own patrolling systems as police protection is insufficient. Most camps are enclosed with barbed wire fence. This is not only for the protection of the refugees, but also to avoid that refugees move freely or interact with the local people.
Refugee camps may sometimes serve as headquarters for the recruitment, support and training of guerilla organizations engaged in fighting in the refugees' area of origin; such organizations often use humanitarian aid to supply their troops. Rwandan refugee camps in Zaire and Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand supported armed groups until their destruction by local military forces.
Refugee camps are also places where terror attacks, bombings, militia attacks, stabbings and shootings take place and abductions of aid workers are not unheard of. The police can also play a role in attacks on refugees.
Health and health care
Due to crowding and lack of infrastructure, refugee camps are often unhygienic, leading to a high incidence of infectious diseases and epidemics. Sick or injured refugees rely on free health care provided by aid agencies in camps, and may not have access to health services outside of a camp setting. Some aid agencies employ outreach workers who make visits from tent to tent to offer medical assistance to ill and malnourished refugees, but resources are often scarce. Vulnerable persons who have difficulties accessing services may be supported through individual case management. Common infectious diseases include diarrhea from various causes, malaria, viral hepatitis, measles, meningitis, and urinary/reproductive tract infections. These are exacerbated by malnutrition.
Reproductive Health
The UNHCR is responsible for providing reproductive heath services to refugee populations and in camps. This includes educating refugees on reproductive health, family planning, giving them access to healthcare professionals for their reproductive needs and providing necessary supplies such as feminine hygiene products.
Freedom of movement
Once admitted to a camp, refugees usually do not have freedom to move about the country but are required to obtain Movement Passes from the UNHCR and the host country government. Yet informally many refugees are mobile and travel between cities and the camps, or otherwise making use of networks or technology in maintaining these links. Due to widespread corruption in public service there is a grey area that creates space for refugees to manoeuvre. Many refugees in the camps, given the opportunity, try to make their way to cities. Some refugee elites even rotate between the camp and the city, or rotate periods in the camp with periods elsewhere in the country in family networks, sometimes with another relative in a Western country that contributes financially. Refugee camps may serve as a safety net for people who go to cities or who attempt to return to their countries of origin. Some refugees marry nationals so that they can bypass the police rules regarding movements out of the camps. It is a lucrative side-business for many police officers working the area around the camps to have many unofficial roadblocks and to target refugees travelling outside the camps who must pay bribes to avoid deportation.
Duration and durable solutions
Although camps are intended to be a temporary solution, some of them exist for decades. Some Palestinian refugee camps have existed since 1948, camps for Eritreans in Sudan (such as the Shagarab camp) have existed since 1968, the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria have existed since 1975, camps for Burmese in Thailand (such as the Mae La refugee camp) have existed since 1986, Buduburam in Ghana since 1990, or Dadaab and Kakuma in Kenya since 1991 and 1992, respectively. In fact “protracted refugee situations now account for the vast majority of the world’s refugee population”. The average time a refugee stays in a camp is 17 years. The longer a camp exist the lower tends to be the annual international funding and the bigger the implications for human rights. Some camps grow into permanent settlements and even merge with nearby older communities, such as Ain al-Hilweh, Lebanon and Deir al-Balah, Palestine.
People may stay in these camps, receiving emergency food and medical aid, for many years and possibly even for their whole life. To prevent this the UNHCR promotes three alternatives to that: