Displaying items by tag: Refugees

The influx of thousands of Iraqis into Jordan after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and again after the escalation of sectarian tensions in 2006, has significantly increased demand on basic public services. The international community’s response to this refugee crisis has focused on providing humanitarian assistance, including cash transfers, non-food items, medical care, psychological counselling and support, targeted psychosocial activities and vocational skills training. Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Jordanian government, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) provides cash assistance to the most vulnerable Iraqi families and protection services, in addition to supporting medical and social…

Tucked away in the arid North Eastern Province of Kenya is one of the largest and oldest refugee camp complexes in the world. Twenty-one years old, with a population of over 300,000, the Dadaab refugee camps (Ifo, Hagedera and Dagahaley) host refugees mainly from Somalia, but also from Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Sudan. Humanitarian agencies are under pressure not only to provide services to resident refugees, many of whom have lived in the camp complex for over 20 years, but also to address the needs of the approximately 1,000 refugees who continue to arrive from Somalia every month. They face…

La sécurité de l’usage foncier a une influence directe sur la vulnérabilité de gens aux désastres et sur leur capacité à se rétablir.  Le type d’usage affecte directement la probabilité de déplacement et les chances d’un retour rapide.  La sécurité d’usage ne signifie pas nécessairement une propriété formellement enregistrée, légalement reconnue dont on peut hériter.  Elle peut également s’appliquer à des manières formelles et informelles, à court et à long terme d’assurer un abri à des particuliers, des ménages, des communautés et des entreprises, et prendre la forme d’une location, d’un droit de propriété ou d’un bail sur terrains.  Les…

La relation entre les désastres naturels, le relèvement et la réduction de la pauvreté est en passe de devenir une question scientifique, économique et politique cruciale.  Il est maintenant généralement reconnu que certains désastres « naturels » sont le produit de structures économiques et sociopolitiques et de processus de développement.  A leur tour, les désastres mettent en relief de façon frappante les inégalités socioéconomiques et créent une pression pour un changement.  Et pourtant la reconstruction reproduit habituellement les vulnérabilités.  Ainsi, le processus de développement contribue au nombre et à l’échelle des désastres ; les désastres retardent le développement, augmentant la vulnérabilité et sapant…

Pierre Salignon writes from Libya's easterly border with Egypt on 8th March, in the days before the UN Security Council resolution.   The border crossing into Egypt, an escape route for many foreign nationals fleeing the violence in Libya, is four kilometres away from the small port town of Saloum at the extreme west of Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. More than 100,000 people have already crossed here, heading back to their home countries. They go unnoticed by the media, more preoccupied by events at the Tunisia crossing.                    There are more than 30 nationalities in total, but the majority are Egyptian men, with some families…

22 October 2010 13:00-15:00 (GMT+01 (BST)) - Public event, Overseas Development Institute and screened live online In the first of three events in the series Stabilisation, development and humanitarian action, this event launches the supplementary Theme Issue of the journal Disasters States of Fragility, considers the implications of stabilisation for international humanitarian action. The guest editors and some of the contributors to the supplementary Theme Issue will present the key findings of the articles, critically assessing the discourses, policies and practices associated with stabilisation. They consider whether stabilisation efforts that combine military, political, development and humanitarian responses have reduced ‘humanitarian…

Security of tenure has a direct influence on people’s vulnerability to disasters and their capacity to recover. Tenure type directly affects the likelihood of displacement and the chances of a rapid return. Tenure security does not necessarily mean having formally registered, legally recognised and inheritable ownership. It can also mean formal and informal, short- and long-term ways to secure shelter by individuals, households, communities and enterprises, including renting, ownership and leasing of land. Contemporary studies suggest a move away from trying to ‘solve’ land rights issues by documenting and enforcing top-down ownership models in favour of flexible, incremental approaches based…

With events in Haiti and Pakistan dominating recent news headlines, the devastating impact of disasters on the world’s population is on the increase. Accompanying official responses to these emergencies has been a growing demand for reconstruction at scale. The speakers at this event will reflect upon recent experiences of disaster reconstruction around the world and present evidence for developing best practice in large-scale reconstruction. With evidence from the work of the practitioners around the world, Practical Action Publishing is launching a new book, Building Back Better, published in association with IFRC and South Bank University London, which examines the context…

The relationship between natural disasters, recovery and poverty reduction is becoming a key scientific, economic and political issue. It is now widely accepted that some ‘natural’ disasters actually arise from socio-economic and political structures and processes of development. In turn, disasters bring socioeconomic inequalities into stark relief, creating pressure for change. Yet reconstruction usually reproduces vulnerabilities. Thus, development processes contribute to the number and scale of disasters; disasters set back development, increasing vulnerability and undermining future recovery and development. This article explores the mechanisms by which post-disaster reconstruction following the earthquake in Haiti may succeed in achieving developmental objectives, in…

The Burmese refugee camps on the Thai–Burma border are characterised as a protracted refugee situation.[1] The nine camps spread across four provinces have been in existence since the mid-1980s, and have a collective population of approximately 135,000 people.[2] The ethnic conflict precipitating much of the forced migration continues unabated in Burma, with at least 3,000 people fleeing to Thailand in 2009.[3] Until 1998, there was no formal protection programming in the camps. UNHCR was barred from entering them, and NGOs were prohibited from implementing programmes focusing on refugee rights. Camp residents faced (and still face) an array of threats from…