Reflections on Dadaab

Today, our blog is reflections on regugee camps from our Amy Biehl intern, Brendan.  Post follows:

Life in Refugee Camps

Refugee camps are town-like settlements of various sizes open to "refugees," people who have fled their home as a result of being unjustly persecuted by their home country (such as genocide), and are unable to resettle elsewhere.  Refugee camps usually provide refugees with very basic facilities.  The problem, however, is that life in these camps is very difficult in comparison to life in a typical city.  The camps are generally located miles away from cities in arid, hot, inhospitable climates, the exits lined with guards to ensure that nobody enters or leaves without permission.  Refugees normally must build their own homes and lack such things as electricity, sewer systems, and water lines.  It is a struggle each day to survive, with such basic needs as food, water, and hygiene difficult to satisfy.  And, even when the problem afflicting a person's country has ended, the person is not allowed to leave until they have permission to do so.  It is getting this permission that causes the refugee to be forced through a difficult and biased system of talking with officials.  Almost every person in a refugee camp has hopes of leaving.  But, sadly, very few refugees will ever see the outside of the camp again in their lifetime.

Currently, the situation is not looking very good.  One of the world's oldest and largest refugee camps, located in Dadaab, is twenty years old and currently holds 380,000 refugees, four times more than it was intended to hold.  This forces some of the refugees to set up shelter outside the camp.  There are other issues around the camp that also result from this.  These issues include sanitation, drought, and deforestation (the latter due to a shortage of firewood).  The area is a hotspot for sandstorms, and, due to the fact that these people do not have access to transportation, they must walk to the camp.  This, combined with the extreme heat, causes many individuals (in particular, children) to die either on route to the camp, or shortly after arrival.  Plus, with the population rising higher and higher, it's likely only a matter of years before the population becomes too massive for the camp to handle.  As the CNN Health site says of Dadaab, "Right now, this may be the most desperate place on Earth".  Unfortunately, none of these issues are specific to the Dadaab camp.  Most camps, no matter where they might be located, are currently facing similar issues.  And, like Dadaab, conditions in these camps are slowly growing worse, and they won't hold out for much longer.

These images from The Atlantic help illustrate Brendan's points