Abstract
Although the international displacement of people caused by the Syrian conflict has dominated the media for the past several years, an inside story that is less visible requires more attention: that of internal displacement. More than half of the population of Syria has been forced to flee their houses. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in December 2017 accounted for more than six and a half million, more than a third of the total of population of Syria in 2011 (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), 2012. http://www.internal-displacement.org/middle-east-and-north-africa/syria/ ). Displaced Syrians have experienced constraints in getting adequate housing for the short- and mid-term inside and outside the country. However, internal displacement, in particular, adds a dimension to the complex notion of mass sheltering. Sheltering policies, or lack thereof, as well as the shelter itself as a design and construction product all express the power of those who govern more than the aspirations of those who inhabit. Affected groups find solutions by themselves, via national or international organisations, or a combination of both. However, such solutions function under the influence of authorities controlling the area in which IDPs are received. Among the alternatives available to displaced communities, this paper reviews two cases of internally displaced families in Syria: a collective centre in government-controlled Damascus (schools) and a planned camp in Afes village in a rebel-held area near Idlib.
Highlights
Adequate housing is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25) as part of the right to an adequate standard of living (United Nations 1948)
Internal displacement implies an extensive use of legal and socioeconomic frameworks in which the definition of state sovereignty must be broadened to include responsibility (Cohen and Deng 1998, p. 13); internally displaced movement is a result of a conflict, and a cause of subsequent conflicts (Rajput 2013); and internally displaced persons (IDPs) sheltering and reception centres can be an extension of the violence (Zea 2011, pp. 6–8). This prompts an examination of the notion of home within the IDPs in the case of Syria not as a product, but as a process that produces different typologies of temporary housing
Concerning shelter, fewer than 3% of IDPs have found refuge in official collective centres coordinated by the government or opposition groups, while the rest live with host families, in private accommodation, or informal settlements (Mooney 2014, p. 44)
Summary
Adequate housing is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25) as part of the right to an adequate standard of living (United Nations 1948). The concept of shelter for displaced people is challenged through the ideas of home, memory, identity and belonging as well as the design, application of materials, construction and infrastructure This prompts an examination of the notion of home within the IDPs in the case of Syria not as a product, but as a process that produces different typologies of temporary housing. What are these typologies? How do they reflect the politics behind their design, material, location and infrastructure? How were this politics manifested in sheltering temporality and permanence?
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