Sudan’s hospitality towards those fleeing for their lives has long been recognised and appreciated, at least publicly, by the international community. The first influx of refugees was in 1963 from Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo); Eritreans followed in…
The referendum on self-determination, due to be held in December 1998, should end the 20-year exile of the Saharawi people in the Tindouf refugee camps of Algeria. But how will these people, who have endured the hardships of refugee camps…
Refugee policy in the South has been largely driven by the demands of donors and humanitarian organisations (Karadawi 1984). It requires rethinking, both in terms of the needs of refugees and their hosts (RSP 1991). Assistance policies have encouraged the…
There are over 34,000 Guatemalan refugees and some 200,000 people internally displaced. The civil war in Guatemala, which began in the 1960s and reached its peak in the early 1980s, 'reportedly left more than 100,000 dead, an estimated 40,000 'disappeared’…
Wildlife conservation schemes, which aim to protect endangered fauna and flora, have a relatively recent history in northern Arabia. Their philosophical underpinnings, however, stem from a long African colonial and post-independence tradition. In East Africa and elsewhere, pastoral populations were…
As the first international standards developed for IDPs, the principles were presented to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in April 1998 by the Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons. The 53-member Commission, in a resolution adopted…
Real or simulated dependency and an unavoidable behaviour pattern go hand-in-glove with a prolonged stay in a refugee camp. It is not only obvious in the attitude of those refugees who hang around the administrative complex in a camp, clamouring…
When the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement were drafted in the 1990s, there was little consensus over whether they should include the rights of people uprooted by natural disasters. Those opposed argued that only persons fleeing persecution and violence should…
The long drawn-out internal armed conflict in Colombia has uprooted millions of people over the years. The crisis is largely one of internal displacement, with about three million IDPs in Colombia – out of a total population of 42 million.…
In 2008, Europe witnessed a significant increase in the number of migrants and refugees arriving on its Mediterranean shores, a turn-around from previously declining numbers. Some 30,000 people were reported to have reached Italy by the end of October 2008,…