73799 Cities Without CIVIS Sharing Knowledge and Learning from Cities Slums No. 5 — May 2011 A Haitian woman walking through an IDP camp in Port-au-Prince following the earthquake of January 2010. © Ulises Rodriguez/photolibrary The urbanisation of displaced people Prepared by Jeff Crisp, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and Hilde Refstie, Cities Alliance The displaced within the context of “Too many of the underlying as- rapid urbanisation sumptions, the analytical tools and the operational approaches that T he year 2008 marked a historical turning guide our work are based on the point as, for the first time, more than half outmoded notion that refugees and the world’s total population now lives in displaced people belong in camps, urbanised landscapes. This urbanisation where their needs are best and most process will be at its most intense over the next easily met through the provision of three decades, with over 90 per cent of global urban direct and dedicated humanitarian growth happening in the developing world. Rapid services. We have not yet thought urbanisation interacts with, and is reinforced by, through the full challenge of operat- stressors such as climate change, environmental ing in cities, where displaced popu- degradation, food shortages, volatile commodity lations are intermingled with other prices, financial and economic instability, under/un- urban residents and where the activi- employment, crime and weak governance. ties of humanitarian agencies must Rapid urbanisation is also influenced by conflict evidently be supportive of – rather and war, as people flee the violence in their home than separate from – those of the au- areas and seek refuge in cities. As the world becomes thorities and development actors.�1 increasingly urban, so too are these displaced populations. While it is impossible to gather 1 Judy Cheng-Hopkins, Assistant High Commis- uncontested data, there may be over ten million sioner, UNHCR, Presentation to Cities Alliance Consultative Group Meeting, 22 January 2009, refugees – and at least twice as many internally Barcelona. displaced persons (IDPs) – in urban areas. The CIVIS series shares knowledge and learning arising from Cities Alliance projects and other activities in slum upgrading and city development strategies. It also serves as a platform for policy dialogue among city development stakeholders, including national and local governments, donors and slum dwellers to impact change in the lives of the urban poor and advance the urban development agenda. www.citiesalliance.org At the same time, the large-scale presence of Box 1: Refugees and IDPs displaced people in urban areas has wider implications for the economy, society and A refugee is defined as a person who “owing administration of these cities. When forced migrants to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for move in significant numbers to an urban area, they reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership place additional pressure on the infrastructure and of a particular social group, or political opinion, environment and add to existing competition in is outside the country of his nationality, and is employment, housing and other markets. Moreover, unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to many of these displaced people take up residence avail himself of the protection of that country.�2 with family and friends, resulting in overcrowding with negative consequences for the health and The main difference between IDPs and welfare of all concerned. Urban displacement refugees is that the internally displaced remain may also stretch the capacity of governmental and within the borders of their own country. Also, non-governmental agencies to the breaking point, refugee status entitles individuals to certain especially when movements to urban areas take rights and international protection, while IDPs place in large numbers and within short periods of are still under the jurisdiction of their own time. In sum, while displacement contributes to the government. However, IDPs are often in need urbanisation process, it also complicates and has the of special protection, not least because the potential to obstruct the tasks of urban planning government responsible for protecting them is and poverty reduction. sometimes unwilling or unable to do so, or may itself be the cause of displacement. The generally negative attitudes of many developing country governments to urbanisation The available evidence suggests that displaced also compound the challenges forced migrants people are often confronted with additional risks face. These most commonly take the form of the when compared to other elements of the urban failure to provide well-located land for settlement poor. They have often lost all of their assets and or services such as water, sanitation, solid waste do not enjoy secure housing, land or property disposal, energy, as well as the lack of access to rights. In addition, they frequently lack supportive health and education. It is into this generally social networks and may not be in possession of negative policy environment that urban refugees the skills and knowledge required to survive in and IDPs – and policies to address their issues – will a city. Displaced people may also be unable to need to be placed. obtain the identity documents that are required to access public services such as rations or subsidised This complex urban environment calls for a different food. Or, in the case of refugees and asylum response to displacement than the traditional camp- seekers, they may be formally excluded from the based approach. While populations in camps are labour market and denied access to educational highly visible and easy to target, displaced people in opportunities and health services. urban areas live together with other marginalised 2 Article 1A, paragraph 1, of the 1951 groups as the urban poor. Any strategies attempting Convention Relating to the Status of to assist the displaced populations must take into Refugees. 2 | CIVIS: Sharing Knowledge and Learning from Cities account the broader population of their urban and resident communities. Humanitarians can learn poor neighbours. For local governments, the arrival from the experience of development actors who and long-term settlement of displaced populations have developed such links. in cities needs to be anticipated, understood and planned for as one factor within an accumulation Addressing the knowledge gap on of challenging trends. urbanisation and the displaced To assist in addressing the challenge of urban Most studies advocate on behalf of urban displacement, UNHCR and other agencies refugees/IDPs and do not consider the impacts working with displaced urban populations must of their urbanisation on settled populations as develop new sets of relationships. They can no well as on municipal and national authorities. longer work only with national governments Little is known about the impact of displaced and line ministries; they must also establish communities on the cost and availability of relationships with mayors, municipal authorities, food, housing and jobs. While many urban urban police forces, service providers and – most communities of displaced people have been importantly of all – representatives of displaced around for years, their existence has not been Displaced peoples camp in Kabul, Afghanistan. © Tom Koene/photolibrary www.citiesalliance.org | 3 officially noted. It is highly likely a majority Box 2: The conflict-driven urbanisation will become permanent urban residents, and of Kabul their presence must be fully accounted for in Kabul, Afghanistan is one of the world’s urban planning, poverty reduction strategies, fastest growing cities. By some accounts, its slum upgrading and other community population has grown sevenfold since the overthrow of the Taliban at the end of 2001. development interventions. In 2006 Kabul was estimated to have 3.43 million people3, but it may now have over This relationship between displacement and five million. This growth has been primarily fuelled by the influx of repatriating refugees urbanisation is one that urban planners, and IDPs.4Some analysts speculate that 70 demographers and development specialists have per cent of the estimated population of not significantly addressed, even though forced Kabul – several million people – fall into the overlapping categories of returnee/IDP. migration – and in particular internal displacement The impact on Kabul’s infrastructure has – has clearly impacted urban transformation. There been significant. Designed over three are few documented examples of linkages between decades ago for a population of less than one million, the city’s electricity supply, displacement and urban planning, administration, water resources, sanitation and waste poverty reduction and emergency preparedness. collection services cannot meet the needs There is also a dearth of studies on how people of its fast-growing population. Less than half the city’s residents have running displaced to urban areas manage their lives, and water, regular power or access to sewage the voices of urban refugees and IDPs are very systems.5 rarely heard by policymakers. In the absence of Housing is also inadequate. There has been virtually no investment in public sufficient research, it is hard to generalise about housing since the Soviet withdrawal, the reasons why displaced people congregate in and up to 90 per cent of Kabul’s current cities, the impacts that they have on urban areas population is housed in areas outside the city’s original master plan.6 Today, informal and their residents, their coping strategies and their settlements constitute most of the city. A means of livelihood. Considerably more research Kabul municipal official recently noted that is needed but this cannot happen without much some three million people live in illegal and unplanned dwellings.7 wider acknowledgement – by national governments, Other cities in Afghanistan are also municipalities and development actors – of the experiencing similar issues, albeit not extent of the phenomenon. on scale found in Kabul. Swollen by IDP and refugee numbers, cities throughout Afghanistan are experiencing rising poverty, unemployment, criminality and despair. Findings of the Cities Alliance/UNHCR Displaced and unemployed urban men may scoping study on urban displacement be particularly vulnerable to recruitment by the insurgency.8 In an effort to address this gap in knowledge and 3 http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/urban_2006_1 html policy response, Cities Alliance and UNHCR 4 Beall & Esser, 2005. 5 Graham-Harrison, 2009. conducted a scoping study in 2010 on urban 6 International Crisis Group August 2009. displacement with the objective of identifying the 7 Unsafe housing puts Kabul residents at risk, IRIN, 15 July 2009. challenges in responding to forced displacement 8 International Crisis Group, 2009. to urban areas. The study focused on refugees 4 | CIVIS: Sharing Knowledge and Learning from Cities and internally displaced persons living in, „„ Cities can absorb large numbers of or who have returned or relocated to, urban people unnoticed, as most of those displaced to environments in developing countries as a result urban areas keep a low profile, often avoiding of or after conflict-induced humanitarian crises. registration, enumeration and profiling exercises. It was based on a desk review of existing and „„ Many of those displaced to urban areas live ongoing research on urban displacement and alongside other urban poor in slums/informal adopted a global approach. The key findings settlements where resources and services are from the study are: Displaced women and children in a war damaged building in Decamare, Eritrea. © Eye Ubiquitous/photolibrary already overstretched, social relations fragile and „„ People and returnees displaced from communal solidarity lacking. conflict constitute a significant proportion of the population in many cities in developing „„ Exceptionally high rates of urbanisation in countries and include significant numbers of conflict states do not necessarily subside when the women, children and older people. conflict ends. www.citiesalliance.org | 5 „„ Establishment of residence in urban areas with refugees and IDPs in spatially distinctive by significant numbers of displaced people contexts normally separate from the host from a different ethnic or sectarian group communities, such as in tented villages. It is also is potentially destabilising if not mitigated generally assumed that refugee status is a transient properly. condition, and that refugees and IDPs will return to their place of origin as soon as circumstances „„ The assistance provided to IDPs, refugees allow. At least one of these assumptions will not and returnees in urban areas is ad hoc and apply to the treatment of refugees and IDPs in an almost invariably inadequate. urban setting. „„ Many of the poorly built urban environments in which most urban refugees/ To respond to the increased focus on displaced IDPs live are in areas that are increasingly persons in cities, UNHCR in September 2009 vulnerable to natural hazards, such as flood issued new operational guidelines, with the title plains, coastal areas and on hillsides. However, indicating the agency’s new approach to urban disaster risk reduction strategies rarely consider issues – UNHCR policy on refugee protection and displaced populations. solutions in urban areas.9 The new policy focuses on refugees, not IDPs, and frankly acknowledges „„ There are fundamental methodological failures to provide protection and assistance in problems with gathering data on IDPs, refugees urban areas. The policy emphasises that UNHCR’s and returnees in urban areas where they are mandated responsibilities to refugees are not scattered and rarely homogenous. There is affected by their location: cities are legitimate no statistical universe from which to extract places for refugees to reside in. Most significantly, plausibly representative samples. however, the document stresses that providing „„ The international legal protection available urban refugees with protection, solutions and to urban IDPs is often significantly less than that assistance depends on national and municipal for recognised refugees, although in theory IDPs actors. are protected by their national laws. While UNHCR now has a policy addressing urban refugees, their policy approach to urban IDPs is Rethinking policy approaches to not clear. The relationship between government refugees and IDPs in urban areas and UNHCR mandates needs to be clarified in situations where governments are unable or The issue of refugees and IDPs in urban areas unwilling to assist IDPs. More work needs to be poses a new set of challenges for humanitarian done on this, considering there are twice as many actors such as UNHCR and requires special IDPs in the world as refugees. attention from a policy perspective. Broadly speaking, the organisation will need to revisit a number of assumptions that underpin current approaches to the issue of refugees and IDPs. 9 http://www.unhcr.org/4ab356ab6.pdf Traditional humanitarian assistance has dealt 6 | CIVIS: Sharing Knowledge and Learning from Cities Darfur – IDPs and refugees integrating in the cities “By the early 2000s, the country [Sudan] was into the cities. Most of the IDPs are equally well about 35% urbanized, and the drift to the cities described as urban migrants or squatters. Should was accelerating, notwithstanding the ceasefire and there be a peace agreement and the possibility of peace agreement in the south. Darfur was lagging: return home, it is likely that half or more of the IDPs at the outbreak of the war there in 2003 it was only will remain where they are, move to Darfur’s cities, 18% urbanized. Six years on, the demography of or relocate to central Sudan.�10 Darfur is approximately one third urban, one third rural and one third displaced. Most of the IDP camps are on the margins of the cities and are fast becoming socially and economically integrated 10 De Waal 2009. UNHCR Refugee camp in Katale, Congo. © Wim van Capellen/photolibrary www.citiesalliance.org | 7 Recommendations for agencies „„ Improving registration/interview procedures working with displaced people to learn more about refugee/IDP post-return intentions, expectations and needs Key tasks which humanitarians, development „„ UNHCR and other agencies working with practitioners, urban planners and donors should displaced urban populations must develop focus greater attention on include: new sets of relationships, no longer just with „„ Assisting local governments in planning national governments and line ministries, but for and dealing with large rapid influxes of with mayors, municipal authorities, urban police people to urban areas forces, service providers and – most importantly „„ Addressing the needs of IDPs, refugees, of all – representatives of displaced and resident residents and returnees together in ways that communities. help promote social reintegration, including co-existence/reconciliation projects to tackle The key challenge for humanitarian agencies such discrimination and xenophobia in urban areas as UNHCR will be to find a way to access urban „„ Mobilising and capacitating displaced refugees and IDPs without isolating them as one urban populations and the urban poor they group of people in a whole population of urban live with through enterprise development and poor that finds itself the subject of discrimination. vocational training in order to preserve and Failure to do so could result in incidents such promote their dignity, self-esteem, productive as that in the South African town of de Doorns, and creative potential where Zimbabwean refugees – easily identifiable and vulnerable as scapegoats for a local population „„ Enhancing the skills of humanitarian already struggling to make ends meet – were staff as yet only experienced in camp-based violently attacked. The complex urban context management and conducting trainings for therefore requires an integrated response in which municipal authorities, mayors, judges and police humanitarian agencies work with development on international humanitarian law as well as institutions to address the needs of forced migrants their obligations towards displaced people as well as the urban poor with whom they live. It is the reality faced by a world in which all populations, „„ Being more realistic about the potential for including the displaced, are increasingly urbanised. self-reliance. Unassisted refugees/IDPs cannot be regarded as self-reliant if they are living in abject poverty, or if they are obliged to survive by means of illicit or degrading activities. As such, there is a need for urban policies to address urban poor living in informal settlements Version 2 together with displaced people living among them. 1818 H Street, NW | Washington, DC 20433 USA | Tel (+1 202) 473.9233 | Fax (+1 202) 522.3224 info@citiesalliance.org | www.citiesalliance.org