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Refugee Warehousing
According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the majority of today's refugees live their lives within the confines of refugee camps. A total of 7.4 million of the world's 12 million refugees have been living in camps or settlements for more than a decade. Most have no access to employment opportunities, to forest products such as fire wood, or to external education or occupational training. Refugees caught outside the camps are liable to arrest and deportation.
Long term confinement of refugees has shown to have great negative psychological impact on camp residents, resulting in growing and serious mental health needs. Most refugees in such situations live in camps where idleness, despair and, in some cases, even sexual and physical violence prevails. Women and children, who form the majority of the refugee community, are often the most vulnerable, falling victim to exploitation and abuse.
This practice of refugee confinement is sometimes referred to as warehousing. As a sponsor of the US Committee for Refugee and Immigrant's Anti-Warehousing Campaign. Exodus World Service is part of a growing global trend to challenge refugee warehousing. To read more on this topic, click on the links below:
Advocacy Updates
Problems of Refugee Warehousing...
According to the UNHCR, 7.4 million of the world's 12 million refugees have been living in camps or settlements for more than a decade. This prolonged encampment of refugee populations has led to the violation of a number of rights contained in the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, including freedom of movement and the right to seek wage-earning employment. Restrictions on employment and the right to move beyond the confines of the camps deprive long-staying refugees of the freedom to pursue normal lives and to become productive members of their new societies. Professional certificates and diplomas are often not recognized by host governments, and educational, health and other services are limited. Faced with these restrictions, refugees become dependent on subsistence-level assistance, or less, and lead lives of poverty, frustration and unrealized potential.
Increasingly it is acknowledged that all stakeholders benefit from allowing refugees, while living in camps, the opportunity to realize their human potential. By doing so, refugees can contribute to the host country economy and national security during their exile; be better prepared if they are given the opportunity to resettle in a third country; and contribute to the rebuilding of their own country when their day comes to return home.
UNHCR has recently begun to devote more attention to the issue of promoting refugee livelihoods. Opposition, however, has come from some host governments who are opposed to promoting refugee livelihoods out of fear that refugees will become economically "comfortable" and will not want to return to their homes. However, research has shown that refugees who have been educated, developed useful skills, and acquired resources that they can bring back may fare better upon return than those who have lived for years in camps dependent upon humanitarian assistance (Crisp 2003).
The Anti-Warehousing Campaign....
The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) works for the promotion of refugee livelihoods by providing opportunities for employment, fostering mobility in and out of camps, and supporting education and training. Exodus World Service is proud to join with USCRI in support of their anti-warehousing campaign. The campaign's website contains links to other documents and information on the subject of warehousing. Click www.refugees.org/warehousing for more information.
Advocacy Updates
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