Refugee camp

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A refugee camp is a temporary camp built up by governments, the United Nations, international organizations, (such as the Red Cross) or NGOs to receive refugees. Up to hundreds of thousands of people may live in a single camp.

Since refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu fashion and designed to meet basic human needs for only a short time, when the return of refugees is prevented (often by civil war), a humanitarian crisis can result. Some refugee camps are quite dirty and unhygenic. Some refugee camps, such as Ein el-Helweh have only the quality of a temporary camp, but have existed for decades, which has major implications for human rights.

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.

Facilities of a refugee camp can include the following:

• Sleeping accommodations (tents)
• Hygiene facilities (cleaning and toilets)
• Medical supplies
• Communication equipment (e.g. radio)

Globally, about 17 countries (Australia, Benin, 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. Refugee camps are typically used to describe settlements of people who have escaped war. 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.

Examples of refugee camps:

• Nabatieh camp
• Four camps near Tindouf
• Buduburam refugee camp, home to 40,000 Liberians
• Camps in the east of Chad, hosting approximately 250,000 refugees from the Darfur region in Sudan
• Camps in the south of Chad, hosting approximately 50,000 refugees from Central African Republic

See also

• Tent city
• Burj el-Barajneh refugee camp in the Lebanon
• Transitional shelter
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

References

External links

• Camp Management Toolkit published by Norwegian Refugee Council
• Shelter Library Resource for organisations responding to the transitional settlement and shelter needs of displaced populations
• 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.

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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 08:37:51 PDT (GMT -0700)
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