A refugee camp is a temporary camp built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands or even millions of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, (such as the Red Cross) or NGOs
Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu fashion and designed to meet basic human needs for only a short time. Some refugee camps are dirty and unhygienic. If the return of refugees is prevented (often by civil war), a humanitarian crisis can result.
Some refugee camps grew into permanent settlements, such as Ein el-Helweh, and have existed for decades, which has major implications for human rights
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Facilities
Facilities of a refugee camp can include the following:
- Sleeping accommodations (tents)
- Hygiene facilities (cleaning and toilets)
- Medical supplies
- Communication equipment (e.g. radio)
- Protection from bandits (e.g. barriers, checkpoints, peacekeeping troops).lll
Duration
People may stay in these camps, receiving emergency food and medical aid, until it is safe to return to their homes. In some cases, often after several years, other countries decide it will never be safe to return these people, and they are resettled in "third countries," away from the border they crossed.
Exportation
Globally, about 17 countries (Australia, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States) regularly accept "quota refugees" from refugee camps.[1] Refugee camps are typically used to describe settlements of people who have escaped war. In recent years, most quota refugees have come from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia, Somalia, and Sudan, which have been in various wars and revolutions, and the former Yugoslavia, due to the Yugoslav wars.
Notable camps
Examples of refugee camps are:
- Camps in the east of Chad, such as Breidjing Camp, hosting approximately 250,000 refugees from the Darfur region in Sudan [Starting 2002]
- Camps in the south of Chad, hosting approximately 50,000 refugees from Central African Republic
- Buduburam refugee camp, home to 40,000 Liberians [Opened 1990]
- Camps for Sri Lanka Tamils, 110,000 in India in 1998, and more than 560,000 internally displaced [Starting 1983]
- Four camps near Tindouf [Opened circa 1977]
- Nabatieh camp [Opened 1948, Closed 1991]
See also
- Displaced Persons camp
- Tent city
- Transitional shelter
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
- United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
- Burj el-Barajneh, refugee camp in Lebanon
References
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External links
- Camp Management Toolkit published by Norwegian Refugee Council
- Shelter Library Resource for organisations responding to the transitional settlement and shelter needs of displaced populations
- U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants' Campaign to End Refugee Warehousing in refugee camps around the world, people are confined to their settlement and denied their basic rights.
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