In December 2005 the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)[1] endorsed a ‘cluster’-based mechanism to address gaps in the humanitarian response to IDP and refugee situations. How will it work? The cluster approach is evolving in response to a key recommendation of…
Through its Humanitarian Aid service (DG ECHO), the European Commission puts particular emphasis on helping people caught up in ‘forgotten crises’. For those who work in international relief the phenomenon is well-known. Some disasters are publicised globally, thanks to the…
Half a century after the UN General Assembly demanded a self-determination referendum, the Western Sahara conflict remains as insoluble as ever. In 1975 the rapid withdrawal of Spain – which had amalgamated the territory into a single colony since the…
As Spanish colonial rule ended in 1975, Morocco took control of Western Sahara, triggering a conflict which resulted in mass displacement of Sahrawis to camps around the southern Algerian city of Tindouf. Thirty years on, the conflict remains unresolved.[1]An estimated…
For more than thirty years the people of the Carteret Islands – six tiny islands just 1.5 metres high – have struggled to prevent salt water destroying their coconut palms and waves crashing over their houses. In November 2005 the…
After six years of decline in asylum applications Europe now hosts only five per cent of the world’s refugee population. Only a tiny proportion of the world’s 20 million refuges and asylum seekers ever get to Europe. In 2004 the…
In a small drab office with papers piled to the ceiling, an immigration solicitor explains how difficult it is to work under the new system. “It’s impossible,” he says. “If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t go into…
Economically integrated refugees contribute to development of the host country rather than constituting a ‘burden’. They become progressively less reliant on state aid or humanitarian assistance and better able to support themselves. Social and cultural interactions between refugees and local…
The public health rationale for condom use in the refugee setting is compelling, as refugees are particularly vulnerable to HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Social dislocation, economic deprivation, increased sexual violence, lack of access to medical services, increased transactional…
In December 2005, I undertook an official mission to the Caucasus republic of Georgia. In addition to Tbilisi, I visited the Samegrelo region and the de facto autonomous regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. I was shocked by the misery…