Makeshift Camps Research Articles

The Belgrade ‘Campscape’: Refugee Spatialities, Mobilities and Migration Corridor Geographies

ABSTRACT This article examines the institutional and makeshift refugee geographies of Belgrade, using Diana Martin’s concept of ‘campscape’. It argues for the importance of this concept as a lens through which the complex relationship between the presence of refugees, camps and the city may be analysed. Accordingly, it takes into consideration key refugee spaces related to the role played by Belgrade as a migration hub along the so-called Balkan Route: institutional and makeshift camps, together with spaces associated with civil society and humanitarian support. After reviewing the key literature, the paper presents three sections that explore Belgrade’s distinctive campscape by analysing its (1) spatialities, (2) mobilities and (3) institutional geographies. The article concludes by claiming that the concept of campscape, when applied to a refugee mobility hub like the one developed in Belgrade since 2015, may be useful for illustrating the endlessly morphing refugee geographies of a well-established informal migration corridor.

Livelihood challenges of single female household heads in the Rohingya and host communities in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundFollowing the mass influx of Rohingya refugees into Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh in 2017, makeshift settlement camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf have been overburdened, leading to livelihood challenges for both Rohingya and host communities. The humanitarian crisis has had adverse effects on vulnerable populations, which include older people, persons with disabilities, adolescents, and single female household heads. Using a subset of a larger dataset on households with most vulnerable groups in both communities, we analysed the effect of the pandemic and lockdown on the livelihood of single female household (HH) heads.MethodsA cross-sectional household roster survey was designed to collect data from households with most vulnerable groups (MVGs) of host and Rohingya communities from December 2020 to March 2021; 11 host community villages and 10 Rohingya camps purposively selected as per the affiliated intervention of the project. The paper analysed quantitative and qualitative data from the sub-group of single female household heads without any income/low income. Participants were surveyed for their socio-demographic characteristics, COVID-19 experiences and knowledge, food security situation, social experiences and mental health using PHQ-2 test for depression.ResultsWe surveyed 432 single female HH heads. Support during the pandemic was reported to be low, with less than 50% of HHs reporting relief meeting their needs; only 36% and 15% of these HHs received rations in camps and host communities respectively. Loan facilities were mostly unavailable and there were reported insufficiencies in food consumption. Over 50% of respondents tested positive on the PHQ-2, a scale used to screen for depression. Further analyses indicates that having a chronic health issue (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.33–3.66) was positively associated with the PHQ-2 score for Rohingya single females. For host single females, having an ill member in the HH (OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.02–2.08) and the inability to save before the pandemic (OR 1.57 95% CI 1.11–2.23) increased the odds of screening positive for depression.ConclusionOur study findings revealed insufficiencies with economic opportunities and food security for single female-headed households, as well as a high rate of positive screening for depression amongst this population. These findings call for a more in-depth understanding of the needs of this group.

Oral cholera vaccine coverage evaluation survey: Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals and host community in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

Cholera remains a significant public health concern in many parts of the world, particularly in areas with poor sanitation and hygiene. Bangladesh and other impoverished nations have been severely affected by cholera outbreaks, especially in areas with a high population density. In order to mitigate the spread of cholera, oral cholera vaccines (OCVs) are recommended as a prophylactic measure. In May 2018, 775,666 of the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN) in the registered and makeshift camps and 103,605 of the residents in the host community received two doses of OCV ShancholTM in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, because the conditions in the area favored the transmission of cholera and other waterborne diseases. This study aimed to assess the coverage of OCV among the FDMN and the host community in Cox's Bazar. In August 2018, we enrolled 4,240 respondents for this study following the "World Health Organization (WHO) Vaccination Coverage Cluster Surveys: Reference Manual (2018)." The coverage survey was conducted with three strata of the population: the host community from the Teknaf Upazila, the registered camp, and the makeshift camp from the Ukhia Upazila. We collected information regarding OCV coverage, demographic characteristics, and knowledge and behaviors of people toward the vaccine. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. According to our study, the overall OCV coverage was 85%, with 68% in the host community, 91% in the registered camp, and 98% in the makeshift camp. The lower coverage in the host community was due to residents unaware of the vaccination campaign, the unavailability of vaccines, and unaware where to go for vaccination. Our findings demonstrate that the OCV campaign in the FDMN camps was successful, reaching over 90% coverage, while coverage in the host community was much lower. In order to make sure that OCV vaccination efforts are reaching the target population and having the desired impact, our study emphasizes the need to inform the target population of when and where to get vaccinated.

The Game: Ritualized Exhaustion and Subversion on the Western Balkan Route

ABSTRACT The expression to go game is widely used among migrants transiting across the Western Balkan route to describe the attempt to cross a border irregularly. In the Bosnian canton of Una Sana, one of the crucial transit spaces across the route, migrants who go game are repeatedly and violently pushed back from the Croatian side of the border. They return to precarious managed facilities and makeshift camps, where they endure constant evictions, mistreatments, and neglect, while planning their next attempt to cross. This paper takes the vantage point of the game to propose a Bourdieusian reading of exhaustion and subversion on the route. It theorises the game as the sum of ritualised practices (habitus) through which migrants endure and subvert a politics of exhaustion diffusing across EUrope’s transit spaces; and situates it as a collective imperative exemplifying the generative and enduring force of autonomy of migration. Written almost a decade after the year of the so-called migration crisis that opened the political imaginary of the route, this article provides necessary reflections on how dynamics of exhaustion and subversion which developed within EUrope’s border regime sedimented into ritualised and relational practices complicating the already contested geographies of Europe’s transit spaces.

Under one roof: Strategic intersectionality among women negotiating the Calais border under lockdown

Calais has attracted the attention of numerous scholars since it emerged as a key European migration pressure point in the early 1990s. Yet in-depth discussions relating to the experiences of displaced women at this border remain rare. This article draws on my unexpected experience of spending 3 months in lockdown with border-crossing women in Calais when the field research I had been carrying out with (predominantly male) people living in makeshift camps at the border was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Drawing on the work of feminist geographers I conceptualise the northern French border as a virilised space, where policing that imposes harsh living conditions at the border reinforces male subjectivities and exacerbates gender-based exclusion and violence. Drawing on ethnographic insights from this intimate period of living together, I then detail how lockdown prompted the women I was living with to renegotiate this terrain with physical proximity to their male counterparts ruled out. I argue that the role of domestic space changed during this period, from one of hindrance to the mobility of the female body to one of strategic potential. In the light of these findings, I propose a conceptualisation of the lockdown period as a moment of retreat and rupture that facilitated these women’s engagement in strategic intersectionality, drawing on their unique positions as a small but diverse group to endure crisis and negotiate opportunities to reach the United Kingdom.

Lives of the Rohingya children in limbo: Childhood, education, and children's rights in refugee camps in Bangladesh

The Rohingyas, an ethnic minority of Myanmar, have been denied human rights, including nationality. For decades, they have suffered from brutal oppression, discrimination, violence, torture, unjust prosecution, murder, and extreme poverty. Hostile situations in Rakhine State have forced the Rohingyas to flee from their homes and seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh and other countries, including India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and even distant Saudi Arabia. Many of the Rohingya refugees are children who escaped from their homeland with traumatic experiences and memories. In Bangladesh, the Rohingya children live in desperate conditions in overcrowded, makeshift refugee camps. They are exhausted, frustrated, and poorly nourished, and they have been battling diseases, including Covid-19, as their conditions have become more challenging and volatile. This article explores the historical context of this crisis and analyzes, from the human rights perspective, issues associated with the Rohingyas’ displacement and the impact it has had on the Rohingya children.

Makeshift camp geographies and informal migration corridors

Makeshift camps have increasingly become a permanent presence along border areas and in cities around Europe and elsewhere, constituting a ‘hidden geography’ that is crucial to overland mobilities of thousands of migrants each year and essential to understanding contemporary informal migration. While there is rich and burgeoning scholarship on makeshift camps, substantial gaps remain in the understanding of these informal geographies which have not yet been conceptualized in terms of the key roles they play in the production of informal migration corridors nor the unique forms of daily life en route that they support, as this paper intends to do.

Micro‐Politics of a Makeshift Refugee Camp: The Grafosrem Factory in Šid, Serbia

AbstractWith the EU's increasingly militarised and violent external borders, makeshift refugee camps have developed into crucial nodes along the “Balkan Route” where refugees reside between their clandestine border‐crossing attempts. Though a rich body of scholarship has recently emerged on the makeshift camp, there remains limited engagement on the complex and dynamic social and political lives produced within these spaces. Building upon ethnographic fieldwork in the makeshift camp of the abandoned Grafosrem factory in the border town of Šid, Serbia, this paper examines, in particular, the micro‐politics produced by the camp's different actors (leaders, residents, outcasts, volunteers). This paper also emphasises how aspects such as race, gender, age, class, and language are at play in dictating the differential access, power, privileges, violence, and exclusion taking place among Grafosrem's diverse subjects, and in generating a multiplicity of lived experiences of the makeshift camp and the corridor more generally.

Economic Hardships and Intergenerational Support among Families in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps in Jos, Nigeria

ABSTRACT Plateau State, Nigeria has experienced multiple ethnoreligious crises including devastating changes to traditional herder–farmer clashes in rural areas. Destruction of lives and property of rural autochthons in crises locations led to internal displacements from their ancestral homes. Families flee to safety, sheltering in makeshift camps under compromising conditions with few basic resources and lost livelihoods. We studied the lived experiences of internally displaced persons (IDP) in a camp, the nature of intergenerational exchange among family members and how the family structure has been affected and thrives in crisis situations. The family resilience framework and the life course theory were employed to understand constraints and agency of displaced families. Qualitative research methods were used to study IDPs living in the Geo-Sciences Camp in Jos. Two focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted in Hausa with adult female and male occupants, interviews with key informants and observations. FGD transcripts were translated to English, coded and analysed thematically. We found that the conflict had inflicted severe poverty on IDPs. They lost most material possessions, sources of livelihood and became dependent on charity to meet their basic needs. Marital relationships and gender roles changed. Parenting roles were affected in duties of provision, nurture and discipline. Critical aspects of family life were managed by ill-trained volunteers, with major support coming from international non-governmental organisations (INGOs)/non-governmental organisations (NGOs), charitable/faith-based organizations and the public with little government presence. Recommendations include reorganisation of IDP camps prioritising family spaces, robust trauma care services and more proactive governance of IDPs to restore them to secured communities.

In the Wilderness

In the Wilderness

Claiming their right to possess: the Guich Oudaya tribe’s resistance to land grabbing

ABSTRACT In February 2014, at the heart of an upscale neighborhood in Rabat, police forces forcefully destroyed the homes of Douar Ouled Dlim’s inhabitants – descendants of the Guich Oudaya tribe. Refusing to leave their land, the inhabitants have since continued to live in makeshift camps made of plastic tarp, protesting their dispossession. Ultimately, they all wonder ‘wach hna maghrba – are we still Moroccan citizens?’ The Guich lands, which have been relinquished at nominal prices to private developers linked to the ruling elite, have been used since the 1980s to extend the city of Rabat and, particularly, to erect one of its most exclusive neighborhoods, Hay Ryad. Despite the various struggles that shaped the resistance led by the Guich Oudaya tribe, today their lands have been consumed by concrete, erasing any trace of the existence of this peri-urban agricultural community. By analysing the mechanisms of dispossession put in place by the State, this paper seeks to show how the colonial logic – reconfigured through the discourse of modernity – has implemented a dichotomy between ‘progress’ and ‘nature’. Finally, the paper argues that this dichotomy continues to contribute to and legitimise the destruction of communal agricultural spaces and the consolidation of urban inequality in contemporary Morocco.

Non-use of modern contraceptives among women in humanitarian contexts: evidence from a qualitative study in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

The continuing conflict situation in Nigeria have created over 2 million displaced persons. In 2019, women and children accounted for about 80% of the internally displaced population in the country. Displacement increases the need for reproductive health services. This study explored the reasons for non-use of modern contraceptives among forcibly displaced Bakassi women in Akwa Ibom State, southern Nigeria. Focus group discussions were used to collect data from a convenience sample of 40 women of reproductive age (15-49 years) in two makeshift resettlement camps in the region in January and February 2020. Data were analysed using a qualitative inductive approach, with thematic organization and analysis of the transcribed responses from the focus group discussions. The findings revealed that many of the women were not using modern contraceptives at the time of the study, and the major reasons they gave for non-use were misconceptions, costs, religious beliefs, desire for more children and the inaccessibility and unavailability of contraceptive services. The use of family planning services can be a life-saving intervention in unstable, crisis environments. Programme implementation to address non-use of contraceptive services among women in crisis contexts should target social norm change, reproductive health education, empowerment programmes and health service provision.

Transitional Shelters on a Policy Landslide – Experiencing Displacement on the Frontline in Bosnia and Herzegovina

ABSTRACT This article sheds light on the status of migrants and asylum seekers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the state response to the growing challenges in the area of acceptance and protection, following the transformation of the Balkan Migration Route. This shift has caught state-level governmental institutions and local communities unprepared, with high numbers of migrants and refugees stranded upon its territory. A special focus was paid to the Bihać and Velika Kladuša municipalities in Una-Sana Canton, in the northwest of the country, and the ways in which they responded to this situation, in particular the ‘archipelago’ of official and makeshift camps that play a fundamental role in managing migration flows. In order to gain an insight into the problem being analyzed, the methodology applied was primarily based on participant observation and interviews, together with desk research of existing reports and media coverage in different stages of the crisis. The evidence suggests that the unique political infrastructure created after the 1990s has given rise to myriad institutional weaknesses and insufficient coordination between state-level and local authorities in the efforts to prevent a humanitarian emergency.

Land Cover Changes after the Massive Rohingya Refugee Influx in Bangladesh: Neo-Classic Unsupervised Approach

The Rohingya refugee influx to Bangladesh in 2017 was a historical incident; the number of refugees was so massive that significant impacts to local communities was inevitable. The Bangladesh government provided land in a preserved area for constructing makeshift camps for the refugees. Previous studies have revealed the land cover changes and impacts of the refugee influx around campsites, especially with regard to local forest resources. Our aim is to establish a convenient approach of providing up-to-date information to monitor holistic local situations. We employed a classic unsupervised technique—a combination of k-means clustering and maximum likelihood estimation—with the latest rich time-series satellite images of Sentinal-1 and Sentinal-2. A combination of VV and normalized difference water index (NDWI) images was successful in identifying built-up/disturbed areas, and a combination of VH and NDWI images was successful in differentiating wetland/saltpan, agriculture /open field, degraded forest/bush, and forest areas. By doing this, we provided annual land cover classification maps for the entire Teknaf peninsula for the pre- and post-influx periods with both fair quality and without prior training data. Our analyses revealed that on-going impacts were still observed by May 2021. As a simple estimation of the intervention consequence, the built-up/disturbed areas increased 6825 ha (compared with the 2015–17 period). However, while the impacts on the original forest were not found to be significant, the degraded forest/bush areas were largely degraded by 4606 ha. These cultivated lands would be used for agricultural activities. This is in line with the reported farmers’ increased income, despite local people with other occupations that are all equally facing the decreases in income. The convenience of our unsupervised classification approach would help keep accumulating a time-series land cover classification, which is important in monitoring impacts on local communities.

Family networks and refugees’ health conditions. A picture from Italian informal settlements

While the relationships between social networks and health are widely acknowledged in the literature, few of these studies have covered the population of refugees living in makeshift camps. In our analysis of a nationally representative Italian survey of individuals living in informal settlements, we find that many had weak family relations: only 10 per cent had one or more family members in their settlement. The paper analyses the effects of individual social network on two measures of health, and finds that the refugees’ health conditions were associated with both their personal characteristics and the characteristics of the settlement. The results show that more than 50 per cent of these foreign nationals recently had health problems, and that those with no family members in the settlement had significantly higher chances of both being in bad or very bad health and having experienced a health problem in the last month.

The pursuit of energy in refugee contexts: Discrimination, displacement, and humanitarian energy access for the Rohingya refugees displaced to Bangladesh

Decades of discrimination under the Burmese government and the military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing drove over 671,000 Rohingyas out of Rakhine and into Bangladesh, where they were settled in make-shift camps. The provision of energy is often overlooked in refugee settlements, where energy facilities are underfunded, inefficient, or unsafe. This paper aims to serve as a scoping review and explores the energy-based needs and provision in the Rohingya refugee camps by drawing from examples and case studies conducted in refugee settlements worldwide. Common to several refugee settlements, Rohingyas rely on unsustainable energy sources like firewood to meet their household energy needs, resulting in numerous social, health, and environmental risks. Initiatives have been undertaken to address their energy needs, such as the distribution of LPG stoves and fuel, and the installation of biogas digesters and solar-powered homes, health centers, and water systems. However, such projects are underfunded or applied on a short scale. This paper calls for further research on the characterization and scale of energy requirements of the Rohingya refugees as well as the formulation of national policies that consider the synergies between energy poverty and socioeconomic, environmental, and political dimensions. Energy access must be viewed as more than just a technological issue. It must be placed as a part of a larger discourse and means for addressing issues in humanitarian crises, in collaboration with the communities concerned. In addition, it also promotes the exploration of the use of hybrid energy systems in the camps to address their energy needs.

Of Werewolves, Jungles, and Refugees: More-than-human Figures along the Balkan Route

ABSTRACT Drawing from Giorgio Agamben’s conceptualisation of the werewolf as a more-than-human figure, this article investigates how this figure may help in analysing the ‘animalisation’ of the refugees banned to the forest along the so-called Balkan Route. After briefly discussing how the werewolf has historically been a recurrent motif in European folkloric accounts and popular narratives depicting the stranger and the abnormal, the article examines how the werewolf has been presented by Agamben as a key figure in his conceptualisation of the sovereign ban. The article then proposed a reading of the Balkan Route and its informal refugee mobilities focussed on their unruly spatialities, made of makeshift camps but also forests and bushes converted into temporarily inhabited ‘jungles’ by banned individuals-on-the-move. The final section illustrates the violence at the border by engaging with Rita Sakr’s analysis of two shorts stories written by Iraqi former refugee Hassan Blasim and based on a more-than-human refugee journey across the Balkan Route. The article concludes by suggesting that the figure of the werewolf-refugee may help in understanding the condition of refugees along the Balkan Route and the violence they are exposed to during their more-than-human journeys across this corner of Europe.

Abandonment, Agency, Control: Migrants’ Camps in Ventimiglia

AbstractThis article examines the governance mechanisms regulating migrants’ presence in Ventimiglia—an Italian city on the north‐west border—and migrants’ agency, following the reintroduction of French border controls in 2015. The study looks at different kinds of camps: the formal one run by the Red Cross and the makeshift camps and settlements that sprang up over time. This work contributes to the academic debate on the interplay between migrants and border regimes by arguing two fundamental points. First, migration governance changed the nature of the makeshift settlements, pushing them from being spaces of autonomy, however precarious, to ones characterised more by exclusion and uncertainty. Second, the relationship between formal and informal spaces and migrants’ agency is ambiguous and changes over time. Using a diachronic perspective and without underestimating migrants’ agency, this paper denounces the inadequacy, fragility and violence of the border regime which migrants move into and within.

Future of Rohingyas: Dignified Return to Myanmar or Restoring Their Rights or Both

At present Bangladesh is hosting more than 1.1 millions of Rohingyas who have been migrated from Myanmar and maximum of them are living in 34 makeshift camps of Cox’s Bazar and some thousands start to live at Bhashan Char of Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) does not recognize Rohingyas as refugees and so they are not entitled to claim even the rights of refugees in Bangladesh. Getting support from the international community, the GoB still tries to repatriate Rohingyas to Myanmar, as the repatriation will relieve the huge burden of Bangladesh. But Rohingyas are not interested to go back to their home country, Myanmar, without establishing their citizenship and some other rights. As a result, till today not a single Rohingya has been repatriated to Myanmar and so at present the future of the Rohingya is in uncertainty. Bangladesh always think the fruitful solution of the Rohingya Crisis lies on their repatriation but more than three years after Rohingyas’ new entry in 2017 no repatriation happens and so the question arises. “What may be the future of Rohingyas?”, “Is the future of Rohingyas rely on their repatriation or staying in Bangladesh for a longer period of time with or without restoring their rights?”, would be tried to discuss in this article. If the Rohingyas will have to stay in Bangladesh for a longer time, then what the GoB should do, will also be discussed in this paper. For this, the field visit and interviews with Rohingya refugees at Rohingya Refugee Camp in 2018 and also in 2020 by the first author, M. M. Rahman, and his more than 3 years working experience on Rohingya crisis at BTV (Bangladesh Television) and the literature reviews by all the authors will be utilized.

On the Streets of Paris: The Experience of Displaced Migrants and Refugees

In the wake of the demolition of the “The Jungle” at Calais, northern France, in October 2016, more than three thousand asylum seekers, refugees and other informal immigrants at any given time live in informal tent cities throughout the city’s northern areas. These makeshift camps appear to manifest a central issue in the French asylum system, that is applicants after making a claim for protection, and awaiting a hearing or decision, receive next to no formal support (financial, or residential) and are largely left to fend for themselves.Not all of the camp residents are asylum seekers wanting to stay in France. Some are migrants (or asylum seekers) en route to the United Kingdom; others are refugees who received French protection, with no housing. Between 2015–2017 there were multiple outbreaks of scabies in these tent cities leading to sanitation workers refusing to work in their vicinity. The current Covid-19 crisis has, moreover, further exacerbated concerns about the health of the unhoused asylum seekers and migrants in Paris - unaccompanied minors, in particular. This article will consider the repeated displacement, or dispersal, of this population in terms of the changing “politics of immigration”and policing in France under President Emmanuel Macron. In order to present the broader social context, it will also describe current events in Paris, including Macron government’s legislation relating to asylum/immigration, policing and more, amid the Covid-19 health crisis.