One day in 2001 I dropped in on a former neighbour in Albania in her tiny two-roomed house. Their family photo album included pictures of the Kosovar[1] family they had taken in following their expulsion from Kosova at the end…
Between May 2015 and December 2016, more than 200,000 Burundi refugees fled into Tanzania. Nyarugusu camp already existed, home to more than 60,000 Congolese refugees for almost 20 years, and it was therefore to here that the first Burundian refugees…
Over recent decades, the word innovation has proliferated across multiple industries and is widely drawn upon to tackle many kinds of problems. In the case of shelter and settlement planning for displaced populations, the pursuit of innovation by the humanitarian…
Media coverage of forced migration tends to repeat the old, tired imagery of tents and camps, ignoring how often displaced people end up living in a much wider range of shelters. Many forced migrants live in ordinary rented apartment blocks…
The slums of Bangladesh’s capital city, Dhaka, have traditionally provided shelter for the country’s environmentally displaced poor. Recent increases in storms and flooding have diminished the liveability of the country’s coastal and rural regions; unable to fish, farm or safely…
The two years of conflict in Yemen have created 3.3 million internally displaced person (IDPs), 20% of whom live in spontaneous settlements or collective centres, including public buildings. Schools top the list of the public buildings that are frequently occupied…
In situations of conflict, disaster and protracted crisis, displaced persons not only face physical threats but are also confronted with the challenge of economic survival. High levels of general unemployment or legal barriers to labour market entry often restrict access…
In Egyptian civil law the birth certificate is the only legal document that proves the existence of a human being and the validation of other identity documents relies on the birth certificate. The birth certificate is the document that identifies…
The reasons why people seek asylum are diverse but the common factor is the overriding need to flee and a hope that life will be better. For many asylum seekers, Australia seemed to offer everything they hoped for. But in…
A recent study suggests that 27% of adult forced migrants living in high-income countries like the UK are survivors of torture.[1] Many have complex physical, psychological, social and legal needs arising from their torture and from their often prolonged and…