Since early 1998 international attention to Kosovo has had a very strong humanitarian focus. The problems faced by the majority Kosovan Albanian inhabitants and the international response have often been presented primarily in terms of the need for humanitarian assistance…
Media coverage of the Kosovo crisis has given the impression that UNHCR and the relief agencies were overwhelmed by the influx of refugees into Macedonia and that it was highly fortunate that NATO was on hand to save the day.…
The three months from April to June 1999 saw a massive emergency aid programme, as large and as high profile as any operation with refugees since the Great Lakes crisis of 1994. The stage may have been different but most…
Kosovan refugees started to arrive in the UK, as spontaneous asylum seekers, in larger numbers in 1997. In 1998 the Home Office received 7,980 asylum applications from nationals of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FYR), mostly from Kosovan Albanians. Between…
On 10 June, the day after the signing of the NATO-Yugoslav peace agreement, there were 138,600 refugees living with host families in Macedonia(1) with a further 106,500 refugees living in camps(2). By early August, 15,000 refugees remained with host families…
Since the mid 1980s when the numbers of asylum seekers claiming refuge in Western Europe began a sharp and prolonged ascent, refugees have come to be a most unwelcome sight. To prevent the entry of those seen as illicit economic…
Transmigration programmes implemented during Suharto's rule resulted in the movement of 1.6 million people, mostly from Java, Bali and Madura to Kalimantan, Sumatra, the Moluccas, Sulawesi and the islands of Eastern Indonesia. Transmigration was viewed both as a demographic imperative…
Based on these findings, IRC established its Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) programme to design strategies to meet the immediate needs of SGBV survivors. The programme has been driven by a focus on the survivors and their rights, and a…
Television coverage of US marines wading ashore in Greece and of British paratroopers marching to Pristina under an umbrella of helicopters gave a glimpse of the sheer size of the NATO mission in Kosovo. The announcement of humanitarian plans to…
Yet, refugees and relief agencies alike often underestimate or feel too overworked to incorporate the importance of cultural factors in assistance programmes. Potential cultural conflicts between refugee communities, host communities and relief agencies are of course important. Less often recognised,…