Displaying items by tag: Refugees

The return and reintegration of refugees and, increasingly, internally displaced persons (IDPs), are major objectives of UNHCR. Along with strategic resettlement, these activities are often central to the achievement of so-called durable solutions, even if what constitutes ‘durable’ has proven frustratingly difficult to measure on the ground. There is uncertainty within the agency concerning the standards by which to judge whether a durable solution has been achieved – whether defined as a basket of entitlements that are commensurate with refugee or IDP status, the achievement of self-reliance by displaced people or parity between the displaced and locals. UNHCR’s Executive Committee…

Over the past three decades, there has been a rapid growth in humanitarian interventions attempting to address the psychosocial distress caused by violence and forced displacement. A wide and diverse range of practice has emerged, reflecting different ways of assessing and understanding psychosocial distress. This article highlights some of the assumptions underlying these different approaches, and how these may inform subsequent practice. As detailed below, a ‘culturally relativistic’ approach attempts to take the point of view of the insider. By applying this approach among a Masaalit community in Darfur, we have been able to gather detailed information about the beneficiaries’…

In a surprise announcement on 30 October, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni declared that all internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Northern Uganda would return home by 31 December, and that all IDP camps would be closed. Twenty-nine resettlement officers had been recruited, Museveni said, and money had been set aside for resettlement costs. The government also asked the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to assist in planning for return. UNHCR agreed to conduct joint security assessments and to provide motorbikes and fuel to begin local assessments, with the understanding that freedom of movement would be respected and that all return…

In March and April 2006, a research team from Tufts University’s Feinstein International Center carried out a study on livelihoods and human security in three areas of Kitgum district in Northern Uganda: the Orom trading centre/IDP camp and surrounding parishes, the Agoro trading centre/IDP camp and nearby villages, and Labuje IDP camp and Pager village. The team used qualitative research methods, including in-depth, semi-structured, open-ended interviews with different categories of households, key informants with clan leaders, IDP camp leaders, medical personnel in the camps, NGO and UN officials and military officials, direct observation and participant observation. This article reports the…

This edition of Humanitarian Exchange features articles on the changing context for IDPs in Northern Uganda, and the challenges confronting the humanitarian community in responding to it. Three years ago, Jan Egeland, the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), described the situation in Northern Uganda as ‘the most forgotten humanitarian crisis in the world’. But by early 2006, despite an increase in humanitarian assistance to the troubled area, the majority of the population of the Acholi sub-region remained displaced, living in squalid conditions in some 200 overcrowded camps, reliant on food aid, their traditional livelihood patterns and clan systems destroyed. Civilians,…

Northern Uganda’s displacement crisis is the worst in the world, with some 1.3 million people crowded into squalid camps, supposedly for their own protection. Although the ceasefire signed by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the government on 26 August 2006 may herald a new start for IDPs, their situation is still difficult, and the outcome of the negotiations in Juba is, at the time of writing, uncertain. The talks may lead to a peaceful settlement of the conflict, but the process could also easily break down. Since the peace talks began, some IDPs have started to commute to…

Despite improvements in the past year, and the cessation of hostilities between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) signed on 26 August, the humanitarian response in Northern Uganda continues to fail. The crisis remains one of the most severe in the world. Over 1.7 million people are displaced from their homes, without access to basic services such as water, sanitation and health care. In the past two years, the government has made promises to respond to the crisis. UN agencies have deployed additional staff, and NGOs have expanded their programmes. None of these efforts has led to…

As part of their research in Kitgum in 2006, described in the preceding article, the Tufts team also sought to gain a better understanding of the physical threats facing women and girls living in or near IDP camps. The study team found that domestic violence against women was widespread in all the camps visited. The most common form of domestic violence is male heads-of-household beating wives or female domestic partners. The most common injuries women sustain from domestic violence include broken or dislocated arms and legs and cuts to the face, neck and upper body. These injuries are inflicted by…

In mid-2005, a multi-agency stratified survey of health and mortality was carried out in Acholi in Northern Uganda, a grouping of three districts (Gulu, Kitgum and Pader) heavily affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency. The survey, the first region-wide assessment of health conditions, was led by the World Health Organisation. Its methods were peer-reviewed, and the report it produced was unanimously judged as valid by independent evaluators. The methodology was standard, and had been used in other settings, including Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo.   Although its findings were consistent with previous studies carried out in…

Urban refugees have long existed in the Nairobi area, and international aid agencies have long been aware of them. Today, there are an estimated 40,000–100,000 in the city. Yet despite this significant presence, international aid agencies have only recently begun to address the needs of urban refugees. Why have urban refugees been ignored for so long, and why are their needs being recognised now? The often-cited ‘invisibility factor’ may have made it easier to ignore them. Like self-settled refugees elsewhere, those in Nairobi are living and working among the host community. They are geographically dispersed across the city, and many…