Why most refugees do not live in camps

By A.R.

THERE are more refugees than at any time since the second world war. The UN Refugee Agency estimates that 66m people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes. Of these, 23m are refugees—people who have fled their home country. Across the world, giant camps have sprung up to accommodate them, including Zaatari in Jordan, Dadaab in Kenya, and Kutupalong in Bangladesh. These sprawling tent cities are what most people picture when they think of refugees. But most refugees do not live in camps. Why is this, and where do they live instead?

Camps make it easier to take care of refugees, largely by concentrating them all in one place. Host governments and aid agencies can quickly build tents to house them, distribute food rations and set up clinics and schools. Refugees in camps are wonderfully easy to inoculate. Camps can swiftly expand to cope with a sudden surge of new arrivals. Many governments also like to keep refugees in a place where they can easily be counted, registered, screened to make sure they are not terrorists, and cordoned off from the local population.