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What
is the difference between refugees and a displaced persons?
Refugees have fled their
country and have crossed an international border recognized by the UN.
Displaced people are often referred to as internally displaced persons
(IDPs). IDPs have been forced to
move to another location within their country of residence. "Refugee"
and "IDP" are legal definitions defined by the United Nations. IERHB works with health issues related to both refugees and
IDPs.
What is a complex humanitarian emergency
or a complex emergency?
Both terms refer to a humanitarian crisis in a country, region or society where
there is a total or significant breakdown of authority resulting from internal
or external conflict and which requires an international response that goes
beyond the mandate or capacity of any single agency and/or the ongoing UN
country program. Common characteristics include:
civilian casualties, and populations besieged or displaced; serious political or conflict-related impediments to delivery of
assistance; inability of people to pursue normal social, political or economic
activities;
high security risks for relief workers; and international and cross-border operations affected by political
differences.
Do refugees have any rights? If so, who protects them?
Refugees do have legal rights protected by international law. The
1951 Refugee Convention
defines the rights of refugees.The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR)
is the UN agency responsible for refugee protection.
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What health issues are most
important to address during
the early phase of complex emergency?
Communicable diseases cause
the most illness and death in most humanitarian emergencies in less-developed
countries. Children younger than 5
years of age are the most vulnerable. The
same communicable diseases that cause illness and death in stable populations
are the most important in emergencies in less-developed countries: measles, malaria,
pneumonia, and diarrhea. As a
result, the same treatment and prevention strategies recommended for stable
populations are appropriate during emergencies.
What are other important
priority areas during a complex emergency?
Other priority areas include
provision of adequate, safe water; food; shelter; and protection from violence. In addition, organizations providing services to
emergency-affected populations have begun to appreciate the importance of other
health-related fields, such as mental health and reproductive health.
What
major organizations work in this field?
UN agencies, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) respond to the needs of emergency-affected populations.
Under international law, the government of the country where refugees or
displaced persons settle has primary responsibility for providing for the needs
of emergency-affected populations. However, in many countries, resources are
very scarce and the government cannot meet these needs. For people fitting the international law definition of refugees, the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
has a mandate from the United Nations to provide services, including protection
from further violence or discrimination. The
World Food Programme (WFP) often
provides the large quantities of food to feed populations dependent on relief
food. UNICEF
often provides essential care for children and their mothers, including
vaccination, nutrition monitoring, and other maternal-child health services.
Nongovernmental organizations are often funded by donor countries or
United Nations agencies to manage these services.
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How is malnutrition
measured?
In most emergencies, children
younger than 5 years of age are the most vulnerable to food shortage. For this reason the weight and
height of these children are measured to access the overall nutritional status of a
population. This does not mean that
only children less than 5 years of age become malnourished; it only means that
this part of the population manifests the effects of food shortage earlier than
others. Children selected for
measurement are compared to a reference population in order to determine if they
are too thin for their height. Children
who fall below certain standard cut-off points for thinness are considered
acutely malnourished. The
proportion of all children who are measured who are malnourished is the
prevalence of acute malnutrition, the major measure of the severity of
malnutrition in a population. In
some emergencies, especially those in more developed countries, other parts of
the population may become malnourished before young children. For example, in emergencies in Eastern Europe and the countries of the
ex-Soviet Union, elderly pensioners whose fixed incomes were substantially
devalued as a result of rampant inflation often suffered the effects of
malnutrition first.
What
diseases are most commonly seen in camps and other areas of high population
density?
In
addition to the usual causes of illness and death in emergency-affected
populations in less-developed countries (measles, malaria, pneumonia, and
diarrhea), crowded settlements may be prone to outbreaks of cholera, meningitis,
and other diseases which can be communicated rapidly. Such outbreaks may be explosive and cause many deaths in a relatively
short period of time. For example,
within 6 weeks of their arrival in Goma, Zaire, almost all the Rwandan refugees
were infected with cholera, which caused more than 40,000 deaths.
Approximately, how many
refugees or displaced people are in the world today?
In January 2002, the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that they cared for 20 million
refugees and displaced people. These
persons lived all over the world. The
U.S. Committee for Refugees estimates that in 2001 there were about 15 million
refugees and asylum seekers in the world. This
number has fallen only slightly since 1992, when there were more than 17 million
refugees.
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What is it like to live in
a refugee camp?
Life in a refugee camp is
very difficult. For those residents
used to working for wages at home, there is often no work available. For farmers, there is often no land to grow crops. Residents in camps are often almost entirely dependent on United Nations
agencies and nongovernmental organizations for all their needs, including food,
water, clothing, shelter, cooking utensils and fuel, etc. Although most camps have markets, most families have no money with which
to buy what little there is for sale. The
governments of the countries in which refugees have settled often impose
restrictions on use of land to grow crops, ability to work for wages outside the
camp, the types of animals refugees can keep, etc. Although basic human needs may be mostly met, residents of camps often
have little to do and suffer from boredom and dependency, which saps their
self-esteem and feeling of worth. Often
normal family and cultural practices and values break down, leading to behavior
which would not occur nor be tolerated in their normal place of residence.
How can I learn more about
a specific group or country?
Many organizations monitor
the number and condition of refugees throughout the world. Probably the best sources of such information are the websites of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (www.unhcr.ch),
the U.S. Committee on Refugees (www.refugees.org)
and Relief Web (www.reliefweb.org).
The UNHCR website has a section containing teaching tools specific to
refugees and their plight. The websites of many other organizations have detailed
information on refugees; a quick web search should find a great deal of
information on refugees and displaced persons anywhere in the world.
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