Thesis 100dpi

ecommends one shower per 50 persons and one communal
latrine per 20 persons. Hygene facilities should
be separated by gender.
- Water collection places
- Clinics, hospitals and immunization centres: UNHCR
recommends one health centre per 20,000 persons and
one referral hospital per 200,000 persons.
- Food distribution and therapeutic feeding centres: UN-
HCR recommends one food distribution centre per 5,000
persons and one feeding centre per 20,000 persons.
- Schools and training centers: UNHCR recommends one
school per 5,000 persons.
Some facilities, such as schools or markets that make a
camp look or feel more permanent, could be prohibited
by host country government.
In reality, these already overcrowded facilities become
more overcrowded: new people arrive into the camp,
but the infrastructure remains the same.
In order to enter the camp, the refugees firstly need to
be registered at the camp’s reception center. Sometimes
queues are so long that waiting times up to two months
are possible. Suffering from mostly malnutrition and
dehydration many die while waiting, since the people
outside the reception center are not entitled to the official
support and medical care. After their refugee status
is granted, they are transported to the camp.
remedies against abuses and can’t appeal against their
own ‘courts’.
The host country is usually responsible for the security
of a refugee camp. It provides military or police, while
UNHCR is supposed to provide legal protection. However,
local police or the legal system of the camp-hosting
countries are not usually not willing to get involved
in issues occurring inside the camps. In many camps,
refugees create their own patrolling systems as police
protection is insufficient. Most camps are enclosed with
barbed wire fence. This is not only for the protection of
the refugees, but also to prevent refugees moving freely
or interacting with the local people.
Although under International law refugees are granted
freedom of movement, it is rarely the case in practice.
Possessing Movement Passes from the UNHCR or the
host country government does not guarantee an option
of leaving the camp; in Nauru camp, for example, refugees
are given travel documents, but they cannot leave
since they are isolated on the island.
Due to crowding and lack of infrastructure, camps can
become unhygienic, leading to a high incidence of infectious
diseases, even epidemics. Common illnesses are
malaria, cholera, jaundice, hepatitis, measles, meningitis
and malnutrition.
91 LIFE IN LIMBO
According to UNHCR vocabulary, a refugee camp
consists of: settlements, sectors, blocks, communities
and families. 16 families make up a community, 16
communities make up a block, four blocks make up a
sector and four sectors are called a settlement. Settlements
and markets in bigger camps are often arranged
according to nationalities, ethnicities, tribes and clans
of their inhabitants A large camp may consist of several
settlements. Each block elects a community leader to
represent the block.
Refugee camps are monuments to human suffering,
and the sheer size of these settlements testifies to the
severity of forced displacement around the world. Yet,
the settlements are also spaces of hope and optimism:
for many inhabitants, these camps represent a stepping
stone on the path to safety and prosperity.
The refugee community elects a leader who is responsible
of mediating and negotiating to resolve problems,
and liaise with refugees, UNHCR and other organizations.
Many refugees mistrust them and there are allegations
of aid agencies bribing them.
Refugees are allowed to establish their own
“court’’where the jurisdiction is provided by elders
and elected leaders of the communities, and financial
support from charities. Refugees are left without legal