Refugee camp


A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced people. Usually, refugees seek asylum after they have 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, or non-governmental organization. Unofficial refugee camps, such as Idomeni in Greece or the Calais jungle in France, are where refugees are largely left without the support of governments or international organizations.
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, a humanitarian crisis can result or continue.
According to UNHCR, most refugees worldwide do not live in refugee camps. At the end of 2015, some 67% 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 of refugees were reported to be living in managed camps. At the end of 2015, about 56% of the total refugee population in rural locations resided in a managed camp, compared to the 2% who resided in individual accommodation. In urban locations, the overwhelming majority of refugees lived in individual accommodations, compared with less than 1% who lived in a managed camp. A small percentage of refugees also live in collective centres, transit camps, and self-settled camps.
Despite 74% of refugees being 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 UNHCR to be per person of the accessible camp area. Within this area, the following facilities can usually be found:
  • An administrative headquarters to coordinate services may be inside or outside the actual camp.
  • Sleeping accommodations are frequently tents, prefabricated huts, or dwellings constructed of locally available materials. UNHCR recommends a minimum of 3.5 m2 of covered living area per person. Shelters should be at least 2 m apart.
  • Gardens attached to the family plot: UNHCR recommends a plot size of 15 m2 per person.
  • Hygiene facilities, such as washing areas, latrines, or toilets: UNHCR recommends one shower per 50 persons and one communal latrine per 20 persons. Distance for the latter should be no more than 50 meters from the shelter and not closer than 6 m. Hygiene facilities should be separated by gender.
  • Places for water collection: Either water tanks where water is off-loaded from trucks, or water tap stands that are connected to boreholes are needed. UNHCR recommends 20 L of water per person and one tap stand per 80 persons that should be no farther than 200 m away from households.
  • Clinics, hospitals and immunization centres: UNHCR recommends one health centre per 20,000 persons and one referral hospital per 200,000 persons.
  • Food distribution and therapeutic feeding centres: UNHCR recommends one food distribution centre per 5,000 persons and one feeding centre per 20,000 persons.
  • Communication equipment : Some long-standing camps have their own radio stations.
  • Security, including protection from banditry and peacekeeping troops to prevent armed violence: Police stations may be outside the actual camp.
  • Schools and training centres: UNHCR recommends one school per 5,000 persons.
  • Markets and shops: UNHCR recommends one marketplace per 20,000 persons.
Schools and markets may be prohibited by the host country's government to discourage refugees from settling permanently in camps. Many refugee camps also have:
  • Cemeteries or crematoria
  • Locations for solid waste disposal: One 100 L rubbish container should be provided per 50 persons and one refuses pit per 500 persons.
  • Reception or transit centre where refugees initially arrive and register before they are allowed into the camp: Reception centres may be outside the camps and closer to the border of the country where refugees enter.
  • Churches or other religious centres or places of worship
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 by GIS.

Arrival

Most new arrivals travel distances up to 500 km on foot. The journey can be dangerous, e.g. wild animals, armed bandits or militias, or landmines. Some refugees are supported by the International Organization for Migration, and some use smugglers. Many new arrivals suffer from acute malnutrition and dehydration. Long queues can develop outside the reception centres, and waiting times of up to two months are possible. People outside the camp are not entitled to official support. Some locals sell water or food for excessive prices and make large profits. Not uncommonly, some refugees 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's government and the UNHCR. Health and nutrition screenings follow. Those who are extremely malnourished are taken to therapeutic feeding centres and the sick to a hospital. Men and women receive counselling separately from each other to determine their needs. After registration, they are given food rations, receive ration cards, soap, jerrycans, kitchen sets, sleeping mats, plastic tarpaulins to build shelters. Leaders from the refugee community may provide further support to the new arrivals.

Housing and sanitation

Residential plots are allocated. 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 frequently, many families 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, space for new pits is limited. Each refugee is supposed to receive around 20 L of water a day, but many have to survive on much less than that. A high number of persons may use a tap stand. Drainage of water from bathroom and kitchen use may be poor and garbage may be disposed of in a haphazard fashion. Few or no sanitary facilities may be 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 provides food rations twice a month: 2,100 calories/person/day. Ideally, it should be:
  • whole grain
  • milled grain
  • 1.5 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons pulses
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 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' economies. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees 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, too:
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 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.

Refugee-hosting countries, though, 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 or to work illegally with no rights and often bad conditions. In some camps, 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, cosmetics, and services such as prepared food, 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 do not have enough money to buy normal sizes, i.e. the goods are put in smaller packages and sold for a higher price. Payment mechanisms used in refugee camps include cash aid/vouchers, in-kind payments, and community-based saving and lending.
Investment by outside private sector organizations in community-based energy solutions such as diesel generators, solar kiosks and biogas digesters has been identified as a way to promote community economic development and employment.