GENDER ISSUES IN REFUGEE CAMPS
By: Abraham Mohale – Junior Curator, DITSONG: National Museum of Military History
Figure 1. World Refugee Day poster design. Word Refugee Day falls every year on 20 June.
(Source: https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/world-refugee-day)
Introduction
On 20 June 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency, and partners in observing World Refugee Day. In line with this year’s theme “Solidarity with Refugees”, the WHO emphasizes the importance of establishing inclusive health systems and insuring care for refugees worldwide. Most recent researched data by reputable world agencies revealed the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide have risen to an unprecedented 120 million. The aim of World Refugee Day is to highlight and show global support for people whose lives have been uprooted by conflict, persecution and hardships of displacement.
Gender difficulties in refugee camps
It is a given that armed conflicts harm women, men and children alike. However, it is now widely accepted in the humanitarian community and reflected in international law and policy, that conflict induced displacement has specific gender dimensions. This means that the protection needs of refugee women and girls often differ significantly from those of men. Women and girls living in refugee camps have a greater risk for rape and sexual assault. Living conditions are often unstable and unhygienic, camps foster insecurity rather than prevent it, and the female refugee is frequently deprived of her means of self-reliance. Women and girls are also at risk of being trafficked, and their access to justice is often limited. Some refugees only spend a brief period living in camps before obtaining a more secure, stable means of living, while for others, camp life can continue for decades. The damaging consequences of protracted camp life is fully recognised by the humanitarian community as demonstrated by the UNHR’S 2014 Policy on Alternatives to Camps.
An example of a good case study is the Rohingya people, an ethnic minority group in Myanmar, who has faced decades of persecution leading to mass displacement, peaking in 2017. Over one million Rohingya refugees now live in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, with women and children facing severe physical and mental health challenges. About 52 % of Rohingya women reported having depressive and emotional distress symptoms and 60% had post-traumatic stress disorder after fleeing violence in their home country. In the refugee camps women often experience various forms of abuse by intimate partners, relatives, or other camp members. About 30 000 children are born annually in the camps, which gives an idea of the dire need for proper maternal and child health care support for Rohingya women and their children, particularly given the fact that seeking health care outside camps is not possible as mobility is restricted to their designated camps. Children represent about 55% of the one million Rohingya refugees residing in the Cox’s Bazar district of which 41% are children under the age of 11 and 18% under the age of four. Malnutrition is a major concern, with 50% of Rohingya children being underweight and suffering from anaemia. Of those under five, 25% are acutely malnourished and 38% are stunted (according to a WHO Situation Report, 2017). Mental health is also a critical issue, as one in five Rohingya refugee children have a severe mental distress.
Disadvantages of refugee camps
1. Overcrowding
Refugee camps are often overcrowded and house thousands of people in close quarters. This can be dangerous as it makes the spread of disease easier. These conditions are hazardous in case of an emergency where people need to get out. Overcrowding plays a role in numerous issues that refugees face in camps, like not having enough supplies or appropriate facilities for them to use.
2. Sanitation and hygiene
Refugee camps also suffer from sanitation and hygiene issues, primarily due to a lack of clean water and cleaning supplies. Because of this, diseases can easily spread through the entire population. Poor sanitation and hygiene prevent people from properly cleaning and washing themselves, cleaning their cooking utensils and equipment, or sanitize areas properly. The lack of clean water contributes to dehydration and illnesses by consuming contaminated water.
3. Food safety
The nature of refugee camps is not conducive to cooking and storing food. There are often not reliable power supply sources to keep food properly refrigerated or warm. This can lead to dangerous situations where food is not being handled, stored and prepared in a manner that ensures safety and quality. However, when people are starving, they are often forced to take a risk by eating whatever is available at that specific time. These circumstances can lead to foodborne illnesses and other health issues.
4.Violence
With little security or armed forces monitoring the situation, refugee camps can also be a breeding ground for violence. Several underlying reasons contribute to this, such as competition for food, water, and shelter. While all violence is bad, there are also more abhorrent forms of violence occurring in refugee camps. Examples are gender-based violence and sexual violence. Sexual violence is a major concern, particularly for women and girls. The reason is there are more women and girls in the camps, and because of this, they can live in constant fear, especially when they go to bed or using the bathroom.
5. Limited safety
Another danger that refugees face in camps is a lack of medical care. Refugees commonly encounter critical health challenges that necessitate rapid attention. Combined with the living conditions in most of these camps, this can lead to deteriorating health conditions and even deaths.
6. Fires
Without reliable power sources, many refugee camps turn to fires as a source of heat for cooking and for warming themselves, however, fires pose a significant threat to safety, especially with overcrowding found in many refugee camps. This can lead to burns, smoke inhalation, other injuries and fires can spread throughout the camp.
The defining characteristic of refugee camps
Refugee camps often involve some level of restriction on refugees’ autonomy and freedom, limiting their ability to make informed decisions about their lives. Pursuing alternatives to camps means striving to eliminate these constraints, enabling refugees to live with greater dignity, self-sufficiency, and normalcy as integrated members of the community, either from the onset of displacement or as soon as possible thereafter. In 2016, the president of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) also called for the closure of all refugee camps, arguing that they were designed for yesterday’s problem, not for tomorrow.
Conclusion
Refugees are not terrorists. They are neither seen nor heard, but they are everywhere. The world has a legal and moral obligation to protect people fleeing bombs, bullets, and tyrants, and throughout history, refugees have enriched our society. “Refugees are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, with the same hopes and ambitions as us, except that a twist of fate has bound their lives to a global refugee crisis on an unprecedented scale“ (stated by Khaled Hosseini). ”Refugees did not just escape a place. They had to escape a thousand memories until they put enough time and distance between them and their misery to wake to a better day” (profound quotes by Nadia Hashimi, a paediatrician, novelist, and a former Democratic congressional candidate for the United States House of Representatives). The book The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons, from World War to Cold War by David Nasaw emphasises the best solution after one million refugees were left behind in Germany after WW II in May 1945, after German forces surrendered to the Allied forces. The first solution for refugees was returning home voluntarily if the situation was safe, the second solution was being resettled to a third country if they still feel unsafe to return to their mother country, and the third solution was integrating and adopting them to become citizens of their country of asylum.
References
Nasaw, David, 2020. The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War (New York: Penguin Press).
https:// Separatedchild.org>our-work.
Beech (2017) “I am struggling to survive for Rohingya Women Abuse continues in camps” New York Times -available online at https: www. NY Times.com/ 2017/12/23.
The Effects of Genocide on Children-https//en. Wikipedia.org.
