Refugee camp

Refugee camp for Rwandans located in what is now eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo following the Rwandan Genocide.

A camp in Guinea for refugees from Sierra Leone.

Nahr el-Bared, Palestinian refugee camp in North Lebanon in 2005.

A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands 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 have existed for decades and some people can stay in refugee camps for decades, both of which have major implications for human rights. Some grow into permanent settlements and even merge with nearby older communities, such as Ein el-Helweh and Deir al-Balah.

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).

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. Although camps are intended to be temporary, it is possible for camps to remain in place for decades. Palestinian refugee camps have existed for 50 years, while other well-known camps such as Buduburam have hosted populations for over 20 years.

Exportation

Globally, about 17 countries (Australia, 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 their home country and have fled to a country of first asylum. 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

Darfur refugee camp in Chad

Notable refugee camps:

• Camps in the east of Chad, such as Breidjing Camp, hosting approximately 250,000 refugees from the Darfur region in Sudan (since 2002)
• Buduburam refugee camp, home to more than 12,000 Liberians^[2] (opened 1990)
• Camps in the south of Chad, hosting approximately 50,000 refugees from Central African Republic
• Dadaab refugee camps in North Eastern Kenya
• Palestine refugee camps (opened 1948)
• Camps on the Thai-Cambodian border between 1979 and 1993: Nong Samet, Nong Chan, Sa Kaeo, Site Two, Khao-I-Dang
• Philippine Refugee Processing Center for Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees fleeing wars in Indochina.
• Four Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria (opened circa 1976)
• Camps for Sri Lankan Tamils, 110,000 in India in 1998, and more than 560,000 internally displaced [Starting 1983]
• Israeli immigrant camps (1947–1950) and Ma'abarot transition camps (1950–1963) to accommodate Jewish refugees and immigrants in Israel.
• Niatak refugee camp of Afghan refugees in Iran.
• Lampedusa immigrant reception center for refugees, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
• Ras Ajdir refugee camp on Libyan-Tunisian border, housing more than 30,000 Libyan refugees(opened 2011)
• Hatay Province (Turkey) camps for Syrian refugees (opened 2011)

Nong Samet Refugee Camp on the Thai-Cambodian border, May 1984

See also

• Displaced Persons camp
• Tent city
• Transitional shelter
• United Nations Border Relief Operation which administered camps in Thailand 1982-1993.
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Refugee camps

• Camp Management Toolkit published by Norwegian Refugee Council
• Shelter Library Resource for organisations responding to the transitional settlement and shelter needs of displaced populations
• Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City. An awareness raising touring event organized by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
• 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.
• Refuge Essay on Life in a Refugee Camp
• Thai-Cambodian Border Camps
• An Assessment of Sphere Humanitarian Standards for Shelter and Settlement Planning in Kenya’s Dadaab Refugee Camps