Academic literature on the topic 'Refugee and internally displaced person settlements'

The spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 presents many challenges to healthcare systems and infrastructures across the world, exacerbating inequalities and leaving the world’s most vulnerable populations most affected. Given their density and available infrastructure, refugee and internally displaced person (IDP) settlements can be particularly susceptible to disease spread. In this paper we present an agent-based modeling approach to simulating the spread of disease in refugee and IDP settlements under various non-pharmaceutical intervention strategies. The model, based on the June open-source framework, is informed by data on geography, demographics, comorbidities, physical infrastructure and other parameters obtained from real-world observations and previous literature. The development and testing of this approach focuses on the Cox’s Bazar refugee settlement in Bangladesh, although our model is designed to be generalizable to other informal settings. Our findings suggest the encouraging self-isolation at home of mild to severe symptomatic patients, as opposed to the isolation of all positive cases in purpose-built isolation and treatment centers, does not increase the risk of secondary infection meaning the centers can be used to provide hospital support to the most intense cases of COVID-19. Secondly we find that mask wearing in all indoor communal areas can be effective at dampening viral spread, even with low mask efficacy and compliance rates. Finally, we model the effects of reopening learning centers in the settlement under various mitigation strategies. For example, a combination of mask wearing in the classroom, halving attendance regularity to enable physical distancing, and better ventilation can almost completely mitigate the increased risk of infection which keeping the learning centers open may cause. These modeling efforts are being incorporated into decision making processes to inform future planning, and further exercises should be carried out in similar geographies to help protect those most vulnerable.

Abstract Access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) services for involuntarily displaced populations is an important component of Sustainable Development Goal 6: achieving universal and equitable access to basic WaSH services by 2030. To date, households have been the main priority in the WaSH sector, and other settings have received less attention. Ensuring that involuntarily displaced persons have adequate WaSH and environmental health services is of critical importance for human rights and development outcomes. The Water Institute at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill and World Vision organized a side event at the 2017 UNC Water and Health conference to discuss obstacles and opportunities related to improving environmental conditions in orphanages, prisons, and refugee and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) settlements. Participants discussed the characteristics of each setting in breakout discussion groups, and then came together to discuss the similarities and differences between the three settings. Our goal was to allow common themes and lessons to emerge and to develop recommendations and shape future research. This side event provided an opportunity for participants from different professional backgrounds to share their experiences working with involuntarily displaced populations and discuss ways forward.

The armed aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ended with the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dayton Agreement), initialed in Dayton on November 21, 1995, and signed on December 14, 1995 in Paris „in Bosnian, Croatian, English and the Serbian language“. The Dayton Agreement confirmed the fact that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had real control (power) over the so-called Republika Srpska. Annex 4 of the Dayton Agreement determined the internal structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are two entities in the internal structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which consists of 10 cantons, and the Republika Srpska. Apart from the two entities, there is also the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was created by the Decision of the International Arbitration Court. It was established on March 8, 2000. According to the Dayton Agreement, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose official name became „Bosnia and Herzegovina“, continues its legal existence under international law as a state with its internationally recognized borders. It remains a member of the United Nations, and as Bosnia and Herzegovina may retain membership or request membership in organizations within the United Nations system and in other international organizations. The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Annex 4 of the Dayton Agreement) guarantees human rights and „fundamental freedoms“. Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Entities, according to the Constitution, will ensure „the highest degree of internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms.“ For this purpose, the formation of the Commission for Human Rights is also envisaged, as provided for in Annex 6 of the General Framework Agreement. The issue of the return of refugees and displaced persons is addressed in Annex 7 of the Dayton Agreement, entitled „Agreement on Refugees and Displaced Persons“. According to Annex 7, all refugees and displaced persons have the right to return freely to their homes and have the right to restitution of property confiscated from them during hostilities since 1991 and to receive compensation for all property that cannot be returned to them. The „Agreement“ states that the return of refugees and displaced persons is an important goal of resolving the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the period 1995-2020. The authorities of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity of Republika Srpska did not give up on the project of „separation of peoples“. The implementation of Annex 7 of the Dayton Agreement has been obstructed in various ways: by killings, beatings, intimidation, attacks on religious buildings and in other ways. Obstructions in the implementation of Annex 7 were also carried out in the entity of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, this was not as pronounced as in Republika Srpska. The first return of displaced persons (refugees and displaced persons) was to the settlement of Mahala, which until the Dayton Agreement was located in the municipality of Kalesija and after Dayton in the municipality of Osmaci in the entity of Republika Srpska. It was August 24, 1996. This was followed by the return of Bosniaks to the settlements of Jusići and Dugi dio in the municipality of Zvornik and Svjetliča in the municipality of Doboj. These events also marked the official start of the implementation of Annex 7 of the Dayton Peace Agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although the Dayton Agreement guaranteed the return of the exiles, everything went much harder on the ground, and there were also human casualties. Between 1992 and 1995, approximately 2.2 million people in Bosnia and Herzegovina were forced to flee their homes as a result of the war against Bosnia and Herzegovina. About 1.2 million people have applied for refugee protection in more than 100 countries around the world, while countries in the region have accepted about 40% of the total number of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Almost one million people were internally displaced in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the beginning of 2003, the Strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Implementation of Annex 7 of the Dayton Agreement was adopted. It was the first, at the level of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, harmonized, framework document which sets goals and plans the necessary actions and reforms towards the final implementation of Annex 7 of the Dayton Agreement. According to the 2015 UNHCR Annual Statistical Report, the number of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina outside the country was 18,748. Of these, 9,080 had refugee status in Serbia, 4,055 in France, 2,274 in Switzerland, 1,412 in Germany, and the remaining number in other countries. It is estimated that at the end of 1995 there were about one million displaced persons, accounting for almost a quarter of Bosnia and Herzegovina's pre-war population. The first comprehensive, official census of displaced persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina was conducted at the end of 2000, when 557,275 displaced persons were registered. The 2005 audit of the status of displaced persons identified 186,138 displaced persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the data of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees from 2016, there were 98,574 displaced persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which 38,345 or 40.6% were displaced in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 59,834 or 58.8% in the Republika Srpska and 395 or 0.5% in the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the ethnic structure of displaced persons, according to the head of household - families, 32.7% (10,667 families and 30,920 persons) are Bosniaks, 60.0% (19,565 families and 60,737 persons) Serbs, 6.7% (2,195 families and 6,374 persons) Croats and 0.6% (184 families and 542 persons) Others. According to the 2016 data of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, by the end of 2016, around 341,000 housing units had been built or renovated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, the Bosnian language is denied. Teaching in the Bosnian language is prohibited, and the language is called the non-existent Bosniak language. This discriminates against students who want their language to be called Bosnian. In addition, high-ranking officials from the Republika Srpska in public appearances deny the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosniaks as a people, deny genocide against Bosniaks, which affects the perspective of the people of this area. Streets in cities bear the names of war criminals from the Second World War and the period of aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, busts of war criminals are being built, schools and other state institutions are being „sanctified“, etc. In the period 1995-2020. Annex 7 of the Dayton Agreement was not fully implemented in 2006, as an important factor in the reintegration of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the recognition of the results of armed aggression and genocide against Bosniaks.

BACKGROUND: Somalia has a high burden of malaria and between 2000 and 2019, an estimated 759,000 cases and 1,942 deaths from malaria have occurred. Although there is limited national data and statistics on the burden of malaria in Somalia, it is considered a major public health problem in the country. AIM OF THE STUDY: The purpose of this study is to explore the results of a rapid assessment of the extent of current access and adequate utilization of malaria control interventions among women of childbearing age from 15 to 49 years in Bad-bado Refugee Camp, Dharkenley District, Mogadishu, Somalia. METHOD: This study applied a non-probability purposive sampling strategy for recruiting study participants. A total of 150 women aged 15 to 49 years old were selected, and semi-structured questionnaires were the main data collection methods. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23 and used a P-value of 95% to assess associations between variables with ≤0.05 regarded as a statistically significant. RESULTS: The incidence of malaria among respondents was 59 cases (39.3%), of which 39 (66.1%) were mothers followed by 17 cases (28.8%) of children under the age of five years. The vast majority of 51 (63.0%) of the respondents who seek treatment confirmed that the distance from the health facility to their residence is about three kilometers or further. The majority of 39 (66.1%) of the respondents who were infected with malaria did not take the malaria medicine, while non-availability and/or non-affordability of the prescribed medicines in the clinics was the reason for not taking the medicine. Most of the respondents, 140 out of 150 of the study participants (93.3%), confirmed that they did not get any malarial services in their internally displaced persons (IDP) settlements. Almost all of the respondents’ household members 147 (98%) did not own insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs), reasoning that due to the lack of distribution of ITNs and the unaffordability of their costs. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: The study revealed a high incidence of malaria cases. However, this study recommends the government and other stakeholders should provide funding to establish camp clinics and increase mobile teams to provide adequate and accessible public health services to combat malaria in these vulnerable populations.

The spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 presents many challenges to healthcare systems and infrastructures across the world, exacerbating inequalities and leaving the world’s most vulnerable populations at risk. Epidemiological modelling is vital to guiding evidence-informed or data-driven decision making. In forced displacement contexts, and in particular refugee and internally displaced people (IDP) settlements, it meets several challenges including data availability and quality, the applicability of existing models to those contexts, the accurate modelling of cultural differences or specificities of those operational settings, the communication of results and uncertainties, as well as the alignment of strategic goals between diverse partners in complex situations. In this paper, we systematically review the limited epidemiological modelling work applied to refugee and IDP settlements so far, and discuss challenges and identify lessons learnt from the process. With the likelihood of disease outbreaks expected to increase in the future as more people are displaced due to conflict and climate change, we call for the development of more approaches and models specifically designed to include the unique features and populations of refugee and IDP settlements. To strengthen collaboration between the modelling and the humanitarian public health communities, we propose a roadmap to encourage the development of systems and frameworks to share needs, build tools and coordinate responses in an efficient and scalable manner, both for this pandemic and for future outbreaks.

On the 24th of February, 2022, a hostile invasion of the Russian army began on the territory of our country, along the entire length of the common border, from Luhansk to Chernihiv, as well as from the territory of Belarus and the occupied Crimea. The Russian occupiers are destroying our cities terribly and heartlessly. The occupiers continue their attacks, but they are unable to overcome the strong-minded Ukrainians, courageous soldiers - the Armed Forces, who are defending their land. The city of Kharkiv, which was the first capital of Ukraine, was awarded the honorary title of the city of Heroes, due to persistent resistance to the predatory bombing of military and industrial facilities, educational institutions, health care facilities, as well as civilian and residential facilities. As a result, the rapid evacuation of the city's population to more remote cities in Ukraine or abroad began. Peaceful people were forced to leave and leave their homes for safety, taking only essentials. But, unfortunately, the territories of most Ukrainian cities to which people were evacuated are overcrowded and do not have the necessary number of residential buildings that would provide comfortable conditions for temporary shelter for internally displaced persons. Therefore, this article aims to solve the global problem of today, namely, the creation of comfortable living conditions through new urban planning entities - energy-efficient ecological settlements for refugees. This settlement should provide the most rational organization of space, be compact, energy efficient, adapted to the selected area and fast in implementation, thanks to innovative technologies - prefabricated buildings. The aim of this study is to identify optimal ways to organize energy-efficient ecological settlements for refugees by building compact types of buildings that are energy efficient and quick to implement. Based on this goal, various types of compact buildings that are energy efficient and fast to implement, features of design solutions for residential buildings that are environmentally friendly and energy efficient and three-dimensional solutions for the organization of energy efficient environmental settlements for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The improvement in computer vision, sensor quality, and remote sensing data availability makes satellite imagery increasingly useful for studying human settlements. Several challenges remain to be overcome for some types of settlements, particularly for internally displaced populations (IDPs) and refugee camps. Refugee-dwelling footprints and detailed information derived from satellite imagery are critical for a variety of applications, including humanitarian aid during disasters or conflicts. Nevertheless, extracting dwellings remains difficult due to their differing sizes, shapes, and location variations. In this study, we use U-Net and residual U-Net to deal with dwelling classification in a refugee camp in northern Cameroon, Africa. Specifically, two semantic segmentation networks are adapted and applied. A limited number of randomly divided sample patches is used to train and test the networks based on a single image of the WorldView-3 satellite. Our accuracy assessment was conducted using four different dwelling categories for classification purposes, using metrics such as Precision, Recall, F1, and Kappa coefficient. As a result, F1 ranges from 81% to over 99% and approximately 88.1% to 99.5% based on the U-Net and the residual U-Net, respectively.

Migration is the main challenge of the 21st century. With 272 million people migrating in 2019, of whom 80 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide, their security and the security of those living in the destination countries or regions is a major concern. One of the decisive factors in protection and security is the planning and management of the camps where millions of refugees and internally displaced people are hosted, in several cases, for many years. Well planned and well-organized camps do not only provide assistance and ensure the dignity to those displaced, help the effective work of the aid workers, but can also contribute to reducing crime and gender-based violence, furthermore decrease security threats and concerns. This paper examines how migrant settlement options, especially camps can be a tool for upholding the dignity of those in the camp whether they are refugees, internally displaced persons or different kinds of migrants, but at the same time how they can provide the safety and security for both the hosted population and the hosting community. For this very reason, the purpose of a shelter, the advantages and disadvantages of camps, furthermore setting and planning of camps will be discussed.

Internally Displaced Persons ('IDPs') outnumber refugees by two to one and often have the same fears, needs and wants as refugees recognised as such under international law. However, refugee status entails international protection, while IDPs are left to the protection of their own state, which may, but by no means necessarily, be the very entity that has forced them to flee in the first place. In recent years, there have been significant developments in the realm of IDP protection. This includes the conclusion of two regional treaties on the protection of IDPs, the development of relevant soft law instruments, and the reformed 'Cluster Approach' of humanitarian response. Although the increased focus on IDP protection is a welcome development, the UNHCR has expressed the fear that 'activities for the internally displaced may be (mis)interpreted as obviating the need for international protection and asylum.' This thesis represents the first legal analysis of the relationship between the protection of IDPs and International Refugee Law. It will discuss five key challenges in this respect. First, the challenge of drawing the attention of the international community to the plight of IDPs; second, the challenge of developing an appropriate framework for the protection of IDPs; third, the challenge of ensuring that internal protection is not interpreted as a substitute for asylum; fourth; the challenge of determining the relationship between complementary protection and internal displacement; and fifth, the challenge of ensuring that IDP protection in an inter-agency context does not trigger the application of Article 1D of the Refugee Convention, rendering the Convention inapplicable to the recipients of that protection. This thesis will conclude by setting out the future challenges in the relationship between IDP protection and International Refugee Law, by identifying questions left open for further research, and by illustrating the overall impact and importance of this thesis' findings.

The protection of forced migrants and the R2P doctrine are inexorably linked. Refugee and internally displaced person forced movements can be triggered directly through mass atrocity crimes, indirectly as people flee mass atrocities, and even by the international use of force triggered by R2P responses. A range of causes of displacement are international crimes and fall within the R2P. However, the international response to internal displacement situations, in particular, tends to highlight legal and humanitarian based forms of protection and assistance, necessarily limited by the issue of sovereignty and state consent. These provide little direct protection in mass atrocity situations. R2P offers a path around the issue of sovereignty not only through the use of force but also by redefining how humanitarian assistance is provided, as demonstrated by Syria.

The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict brings together leading interdisciplinary scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to address a complex range of challenges, contexts, geographies, and issues that arise for women and men in the context of armed conflict. The Handbook addresses war and peace, humanitarian intervention, countering violence and extremism, the United Nations Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, sexual violence, criminal accountability, autonomous weapons, peacekeeping, refugee and internally displaced person (IDP) status, the political economy of war, the economics of conflict, as well as health and economic security. It begins with theoretical approaches to gender and conflict, drawing on the areas of international, peace and conflict, feminist, and masculinities studies. The Handbook explores how women and men’s pre-war societal, economic, and legal status relates to their conflict experiences, affecting the ways in which they are treated in the post-conflict transitional phase. In addition to examining these conflict and post-conflict experiences, the Handbook addresses the differing roles of multiple national and international actors, as well as the UN led Women, Peace, and Security Agenda. Contributions survey the regulatory framework and gendered dimensions of international humanitarian and international human rights law in situations of conflict and occupation as well as addressing, and critiquing, the gendered nature and content of international criminal law. The Handbook also includes grounded country case studies exploring different gendered experiences of conflict in various regions. As a whole, this Handbook seeks to critically examine the contemporary gender-based challenges that emerge in conflict and post-conflicts contexts.

AbstractWith record numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world, it is more important than ever that policy makers, aid organizations, and advocacy groups have access to high-quality data about these vulnerable populations. However, refugee and internally-displaced persons settlements pose unique challenges to the selection of probability samples. These settlements can grow quickly, and registers often are not available or not up-to-date. Refugees who live in communities also are difficult to reach with a probability sample because they are hard to identify, contact, and interview. Drawing on recent data collection experiences, this chapter describes the sample designs that can address such challenges. We argue that the best sampling techniques are those that minimize interviewer discretion and contain built-in opportunities for verifying interviewer performance.

As a threat to life and liberty, wars and political upheavals have served to precipitate the flight of populations since biblical times (Marrus, 1985; Zolberg et al., 1989; UNHCR, 2000). Historically, the basic mechanism of flight, sometimes across national boundaries, and with no surety of safety or asylum in the new land, has operated as a device for the carriage of infectious diseases from one geographical location to another. In Chapter 2, for example, we encountered numerous instances of wartime fugitives who spread bubonic plague, typhus fever, and other war pestilences to their local ‘host’ populations. At the same time, however, fleeing populations may be forced to enter epidemiological environments to which they are unacclimatized, with the attendant risk of exposure to diseases for which they have little or no acquired immunity. The intensive mixing of the populations in refugee camps or other makeshift forms of shelter, often with poor levels of hygiene, with little or no medical provision, and under conditions of stress and malnutrition, further add to the disease risks of displacement (Prothero, 1994; Kalipeni and Oppong, 1998; UNHCR, 2000). The epidemiological dimensions of wartime population displacement—variously manifesting in the movements of refugees, evacuees, and other persons who abandon their homes as a consequence of conflict—form the theme of the present chapter. We begin, in Section 5.2, with a brief overview of international developments in the recognition and management of war-displaced populations, the legal meaning which attaches to such classifications as refugee and internally displaced person (IDP), and theoretical frameworks that have been developed for the study of such groups. International refugees, along with certain other categories of displaced person, have fallen within the mandate of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since its inception in January 1951. Drawing on this source, Section 5.3 examines global trends in refugees and other UNHCR-recognized populations of concern during the latter half of the twentieth century, while Section 5.4 reviews epidemiological aspects of the associated population movements. The remainder of the chapter follows a regional-thematic structure.