It’s a valid question for anyone unfamiliar with the everyday struggles refugees face all around the world, so today, with help from USA for UNHCR, let’s go in depth on what exactly a refugee camp is.
Per their website, USA for UNHCR explains that refugee camps are “temporary facilities built to provide immediate protection and assistance to people who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, persecution or violence.” Quite simply, they are places to for people to go when they have nowhere else to go. They can be what separates one from living and dying. They are very, very important, so it only makes sense we should know more about them.
Startling numbers about refugee camps:
6 million refugees live in refugee camps- 22% of the world’s overall refugee population.
800k Rohingya refugees are hosted in Kutupalong refugee resettlement in Bangladesh- more than the total population of Washington, D.C.
More than half of refugees living in Za’atari and Azraq refugee camp are children.
Services provided at camps:
Shelter
Food
Emergency relief items
Water and sanitation
Healthcare and counseling
Registration and legal aid
Length of time refugees live in camps:
“The average length of time that refugees spend in camps varies depending on the crisis. In protracted refugee situations - where mass displacement has affected a country for five years or more -, refugees may spend years and even decades living in camps and it is common to have entire generations growing up in the camps.” -USA for UNHCR.
Fact:
The vast majority of refugees (about 78%) do not live in camps, but rather in cities. Unfortunately, urban locations, while they do offer more opportunities to find employment, they also present major challenges for refugees, as they are often forced to share housing or live in “non-functional buildings, collective centers, slums or other types of informal settlements with substandard living conditions.”
The largest refugee camp in the world is:
The Kutupalong refugee resettlement, located in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh. The settlement hosts more than 800,000 refugees (who fled violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, and who more than half are children) among its 26 camps.
USA for UNCHCR heartbreakingly explains, “On March 22, a massive fire broke out at Kutupalong refugee camp, destroying 9,500 shelters and leaving more than 45,000 refugees temporarily homeless. Approximately 1,600 important infrastructure facilities - including hospitals, learning centers, aid distribution points and a registration center - were also destroyed. For the thousands of Rohingya refugees who had already suffered trauma when they were forced to flee Myanmar in 2017, this will be the second time they will have to restart their lives.”
COVID-19 impact on refugee camps:
Last year, “many countries temporarily suspended their resettlement programs, leaving millions of refugees stranded and without the possibility to restart their lives. From the 1.44 million refugees in need of resettlement last year, fewer than two percent were resettled - the lowest resettlement numbers recorded in almost two decades and an 80 percent reduction from the previous year.”
How to help:
USA for UNHCR explains how becoming a monthly donor is the best way to help them “ensure families in refugee camps have access to immediate aid, including critical supplies and programs to help them rebuild their lives.”
In a time when so many people are suffering in so many ways all around the world, even a little can go a very long way. Thank you to USA for UNHCR for all the work you to do help the global refugee crisis.
All information in today’s post is from USA for UNHCR’s website. Please click here if you want more info and to see more ways to help.