Refugee Camps

Refugee Camps

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PERSPECTIVES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Refugee camp refers to a place where temporary housing is provided by governments or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) for persons displaced from their homes due to war, political oppression, and/or religious persecution. The displaced person, referred to as a refugee, is someone with a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, who is outside of his or her country of nationality and unable or unwilling to return. A broader definition might include internally displaced persons (IDPs), those who had been uprooted within their own countries.

The basic infrastructure for refugee camps normally includes sleeping accommodations, hygiene facilities (bathrooms and showers), medical supplies, and communication equipment but the quality of infrastructure varies within and across geographic locations. The camp sites might be composed of tents, huts, or boxcar living structures. The development of refugee camps, however, is not always the result of government or NGO initiatives. Often makeshift refugee camps emerge because of massive numbers of people fleeing conflictual situations gathering in spaces that offer some greater level of personal security. At this point governments and organizations providing humanitarian assistance intervene to provide relief that might include latrines, food, medical assistance, and sleeping accommodations.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

Refugee camps are not solely a contemporary world phenomenon. One of the earliest recorded refugee camps is described in the biblical account of the Israelites’ flight from Egypt in Exodus. Moreover, throughout human history there have always existed clashes of interests that had profound implications for human suffering, forced removal from homelands, and caused displacement. The development of refugee camps, however, is associated most often with conflicts transpiring in the contemporary world. In the aftermath of World War I significant numbers of people could be categorized as refugees, but the existence of refugee camps took on global significance after World War II and has become increasingly more common since the end of the cold war.

At the end of both world wars, individuals who feared for their lives or otherwise felt threatened were likely to seek refuge by fleeing to another country. The United Nations (UN) Charter included provisions that established the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1951. The UNHCR had a mandate to seek durable solutions for affected refugee populations through repatriation programs, integration into host communities of the country of first asylum, or resettlement in a third country. This indicates that refugee camps as they have come to be known in the early-twenty-first century were not as widely dispersed globally as they were in the late 1990s. However, one of the oldest known camps, which was created in 1948, still exists in Palestine. Internal conflicts that can be traced back to the end of colonialism have contributed to the proliferation of refugee camps in modern times. The end of the cold war also revived historic animosities and ethnic tensions leading to increased numbers of complex emergencies, increased numbers of people affected by them, and a change in the nature of population displacements that contributed to a proliferation of refugee camps. Such conflicts coupled with natural catastrophes have created a global challenge and make clear the need to ensure that people worldwide enjoy security and freedom.

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PERSPECTIVES

According to the 2005 World Refugee Survey, there were more than 11 million refugees worldwide and more than 21 million IDPs as of December 2004. Not all refugees live in camps, and it is difficult to obtain reliable data pertaining to the actual number who do. In some cases, refugees permanently settle in the host country and integrate into the communities in which they live. In other cases, it is difficult to distinguish between what constitutes the refugee camp, camps for IDPs, and normal housing for a given area. Even so, providing basic accommodations for refugees, as well as IDPs, is a problem that demands global attention. The number of refugees and IDPs associated with ethnic conflicts—such as those in Rwanda in 1994; the Sudan from the 1980s to 2006; East Timor; Kosovo in the 1990s; Afghanistan; and other Third World countries—led to the establishment of refugee camps such as those in Musasa in Northern Burundi; Mboki in Central Africa Republic; Darfur, Sudan; Karama in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Kupang in Indonesia; and Kelli Fazo in Pakistan, which are some of the most populated sites.

Despite enormous efforts by the UN, host governments, and NGOs to render these and other refugee camps livable, conditions have ranged from bearable to horrendous. Some lack very basic supplies such as potable drinking water, latrines, medical supplies, and ample food. Diseases are widespread; many of the children lack access to medical care of any kind and schooling can be unavailable or inadequate; and some refugees live under the threat of forced removal from camps. Although refugee camps tend to be set up near border areas, away from conflicts, many are subject to violence inflicted upon the inhabitants by government forces and/or insurgents on both sides of the border.

One of the greatest threats to peace and security in the twenty-first century is the large-scale movement of refugees and other forced migrants stemming mostly from internal conflicts and natural catastrophes. Failure to address the problem may lead to greater ethnic conflict within countries and across borders, the uncontrollable spread of disease, and greater environmental degradation. Given that Third World nations hosting refugees have challenges in terms of meeting the needs and demands of their own citizens, industrialized nations must step up their efforts to address the problem. In addition to providing financial and humanitarian support, these nations must pressure governments to observe human rights; demonstrate a stronger commitment to timely diplomatic intervention, as a first step, to avert conflicts that are likely to increase the refugee population; and revisit restrictive asylum policies that came to fruition during the 1980s.

SEE ALSO Disease; Genocide; Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs); Palestinian Diaspora; Palestinians; Refugees; War; World War I; World War II

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Homer-Dixon, Thomas. 1994. Environmental Scarcity and Intergroup Conflict. In World Security: Challenges for a New Century, 2nd ed., eds. Michael T. Klare and Daniel C. Thomas, 290-313. New York: St. Martin’s.

Tessitore, John, and Susan Woolfson, eds. 1995. A Global Agenda: Issues before the 50^th General Assembly of the United Nations. New York: University Press of America.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 1995. The State of the World’s Refugees. New York: Oxford University Press.

United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. 2005. World Refugee Survey 2005. Washington, DC: Author.

Kathie Stromile Golden