A colleague of mine stumbled upon a fascinating book by Stephan Stedman and Fred Tanner on (and titled) Refugee Manipulation. The book explores the manipulation of the international refugee regime (i.e. UNHCR, NGOs, States hosting refugees, etc…) by warring parties. That is, the strategic creation and/or use of refugee camps in armed conflict:
Hence some refugee camps become a breeding ground for refugee warriors: disaffected individuals, who-with the assistance of overseas diasporas, host governments, and interested states–equip themselves for battle to retrieve an idealized, mythical lost community. Facing military defeat at home, the warring party uses the suffering of refugees for its own political purpose: to siphon off aid, establish the international legitimacy of their cause, and, by manipulating access to them, ensure that they will not repatriate. As long as armies control refugee populations, they can demand a seat in negotiations.
As the authors point out, the answer to refugee manipulation is in changing the incentives. That is, incentivizing and empowering 1) states hosting refugee camps to maintain control and security, 2) refugee leaders to reject armed groups militarizing camps, and 3) NGOs to prevent the maldistribution of their aid.
Source:
Stedman, Stephen John, and Fred Tanner. 2003. Refugee manipulation: war, politics, and the abuse of human suffering. Brookings Institution Press.
The always enjoyable blog, New Security Beat, reports on a growing poaching problem in Tanzania. Interestingly, the poachers are not criminals after Ivory, but refugees after protein. Refugees in Tanzania have started eating local wildlife as a source of protein, sorely lacking in their UN provided food. The problem is that the refugees’ free protein often comes from chimpanzees and other endangered species.
In response to the report’s assertions, Christiane Berthiaume of the UN World Food Programme, which feeds 215,000 refugees in Tanzania, said that meat spoils quickly, and substituting canned meat for the cheaper beans that currently supply the refugees with protein would cost an additional $46 million over the estimated $60 million currently dedicated to feeding refugees in Tanzania during 2007 and 2008.