Refugee camp  

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A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Camps with over a hundred thousand people are common, but as of 2012 the average camp size is around 11,400.

See also

• Displaced persons camp
• Tent city
• Transitional shelter
• United Nations Border Relief Operation which administered camps in Thailand 1982-1993.
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

Notable refugee camps

The largest refugee settlements in the world are in the eastern Sahel region of Africa. For many years the Dadaab complex was the largest, until it was surpassed by Bidi Bidi in 2017.

Africa

• There are 12 camps in the east of Chad hosting approximately 250,000 Sudanese refugees from the Darfur region in Sudan. These camps are in Breidjing, Oure Cassoni, Mile, Treguine, Iridimi, Touloum, Kounoungou, Goz Amer, Farchana, Am Nabak, Gaga and Djabal. Some of these camps appear in the documentary Google Darfur.
• A number of camps in the south of Chad – such as Dosseye, Kobitey, Mbitoye, Danamadja, Sido, Doyaba and Djako – are hosting approximately 113,000 refugees from Central African Republic.
• There are a rapidly growing number of camps in Uganda, such as Nakivale, Kayaka II, Kyangwali and Rwamwanja. They host 170,000 refugees from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic Of Congo.
• By 2013 there were four camps in Maban County, South Sudan, hosting refugees and internally displaced people. Yusuf Batil camp was home to 37,000 refugees, Doro camp to 44,000, Jamam camp to 20,000 and Gendrassa camp 10,000. These population numbers are subject to fluctuation during the ongoing violence in the country.
• Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana, home to more than 12,000 Liberians (opened 1990)
• Dadaab refugee camps (Ifo, Ifo II, Dagahaley, Hagadera, and Kambioos) in North Eastern Kenya, established in 1991 and now hosting more than 330,000 refugees from Somalia.
• Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, South Western Algeria, were opened circa 1976 and are called Laayoune, Smara, Awserd, February 27, Rabouni, Daira of Bojador and Dakhla.
• Ras Ajdir camp, close to the Tunisian border in Libya, was opened in 2011 and is housing between 20,000 and 30,000 Libyan refugees.
• Dzaleka camp in the Dowa District of Malawi is home to 34,000 refugees from Burundi, the DRC and Rwanda.
• Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania opened in 1997 and initially hosted 60.000 refugees from the DRC. Due to the recent conflicts in Burundi it also hosts 90.000 refugees from Burundi. In 2014 it was the 9th largest refugee camp. However, since the conflict in Burundi it is considered one of the world's biggest and most overcrowded camps.
• Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya was opened in 1991. In 2014, it was the third largest refugee camp worldwide. As of June 2015, Kakuma hosts 185,000 people, mostly migrants from the civil war in South Sudan.
• Bwagiriza and Gatumba refugee camps in Burundi host refugees from the DRC.
• There are a number of camps close to Dolo Odo in southern Ethiopia, hosting refugees from Somalia. In 2014 the Dolo Odo camps (Melkadida, Bokolmanyo, Buramino, Kobe Camp, Fugnido, Hilaweyn and Adiharush) were considered to be the second largest.
• Jomvu, Hatimy and Swaleh Nguru camps near Mombasa, Kenya, were closed in 1997. Refugees, mainly displaced people from Somalia, were either forced to relocate to Kakuma, repatriated or remunerated to voluntarily relocate into unsafe areas in Somalia. Other closed camps in the area include Liboi, Oda, Walda, Thika, Utange and Marafa.
• Hart Sheik in Ethiopia hosted more than 250,000 mostly refugees from Somalia between 1988 and 2004.
• Itang camp in Ethiopia hosted 182,000 refugees from South Sudan and was the world's largest refugee camp for some time during the 1990s.
• Benaco and Ngara in Tanzania.
• Kala, Meheba and Mwange camps in the northwest of Zambia host refugees from Angola and DRC.
• There are 12 camps, such as Shagarab and Wad Sharifey, in eastern Sudan. They host around 66,000 mostly Eritrean refugees, the first of whom arrived in 1968.
• Ali Addeh (or Ali Adde) and Holhol camps in Djibouti host 23,000 refugees, who are mainly from Somalia, but also Ethiopians and Eritreans.
• Osire camp in central Namibia was established in 1992 to accommodate refugees from Angola, Burundi, the DRC, Rwanda and Somalia. It had 20,000 inhabitants in 1998 and only 3,000 in 2014.
• Lainé and Kouankan (I & II) camps in Guinea hosted nearly 29,300 refugees mostly from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d'Ivoire. The number reduced to 15,000 in 2009.
• Cameroon hosted more than 240,000 UNHCR registered refugees in 2014, mainly from the Central African Republic: Minawao refugee camp in the north and Gado Badzere, Borgop, Ngam, Timangolo, Mbilé and Lolo refugee camps in the east of Cameroon.
• There are a number of camps in Rwanda that host 85,000 refugees from the DRC: Gihembe, Kigeme, Kiziba, Mugombwa and Nyabiheke camps.
• Mentao camp in Burkina Faso hosts 13,000 Malian refugees.
• PTP camp near Zwedru, Bahn camp and Little Wlebo camp in eastern Liberia is home to 12,000 refugees from Ivory Coast.
• M'Bera camp in southeastern Mauritania hosts 50,000 Malian refugees.
• Choucha camp in Tunisia hosted nearly 20,000 refugees from 13 different countries who fled from Libya in 2011. Half of them are sub-Saharan African and Arab refugees and the other half are Bangladeshis who had been working in Libya. 3,000 refugees remained the camp in 2012, 1,300 in 2013 and its closure is planned.
• Comè in Benin hosted Togolese refugees until it was closed in 2006.
• Lazaret in Niger was the largest camp in the Sahel during the extreme drought of 1973–1975 and mainly hosted Tuareg people.
• Tongogara Refugee Camp in Zimbabwe was established for Mozambican refugees in 1984 and housed in 58,000 of them in 1994.

Middle East

• Camps for Syrian refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan, including Domiz in Dohuk Governorate, Arbat in Sulaymaniyah, and Qushtapa, Basirma, Gawilan, Kawergosk and Darashakran in Erbil Governorate. (see also Syrian refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan)
• Camps for Syrian refugees in Turkey, such as Urfa, Kilis Oncupinar, Gaziantep and those in the Hatay Province that were opened in 2011 (see also Syrian refugee camps in Turkey).
• Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, hosting 144,000 Syrian refugees as of July 2013, although the population in November 2013 had dropped to around 112,000 as the Syrian civil war continues.
• Mrajeeb Al Fhood refugee camp in Jordan, hosting 4,200 and Azraq camp, hosting 26,000 Syrian refugees.
• Immigrant camps (Israel) (1947–1950) and Ma'abarot transition camps (1950–1963) to accommodate Jewish refugees and immigrants in Israel.
• Palestinian refugee camps were opened between 1948 and 1968. The 59 camps are recognized by the UNRWA and host 1.5 million refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These camps contain the world's largest and oldest refugee population. Yarmouk camp, just outside Damascus, is one of them and was once home to half a million Palestinian refugees (about 18,000 in 2015). It has been besieged by Bashar al-Assad's regime in 2012 and came again under attack by the Islamic State group in 2015.
• Three camps received Palestinian refugees from Iraq: Al Tanf, Al Hol and Al Waleed. There are around 2,000 refugees in Al Hol and in Al Waleed camp, which is on the Iraqi side of the border. Al Tanf, which was on the Syrian side and hosted 1,600 Palestinians, was closed in 2010. An effort was made to close Al Tanf because the refugees' freedom of movement was severely restricted and the desert environment, with its sandstorms and extreme temperatures, was too harsh. Most of the refugees who lived there were resettled to third countries.
• Al Kharaz in Yemen hosts 14,000 refugees from Somalia who crossed the Gulf of Aden.
• Al-Mazraq camps (1-3) host around 24,000 internally displaced persons in Yemen.
• There are camps for displaced Syrians within Syria such as Qah or the Olive Tree Camp.

Europe

• Cyprus internment camps (1946–1949) to accommodate Jewish refugees and Holocaust survivors
• Moria, Oreokastro, Kastikas, Idomeni, and other camps on the Greek islands of Lesbos, Samos, and Chios have rapidly filled (up to 3-4 times more than their official capacity) with migrants fleeing violence in the Middle East and Africa. Since 2015, refugees fleeing conflict such as the Syrian Civil War have attempted to enter Europe but are often stopped in Greece, where they spend, on average, 8 months to a year in camps. Some camps have been destroyed or evacuated, including the evacuation of 4,000 residents from a camp on the island of Lesbos (capacity 1,500) from a tent fire that destroyed more than half the camp.
• Lampedusa immigrant reception center for refugees, asylum seekers and other immigrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
• Ħal Far, Malta for African immigrants.
• There are two Emergency Transit Centres for refugees in Europe.
• Sangatte camp and the Calais jungle in northern France.
• La Linière and Basroch camps in Grande-Synthe, on the outskirts of Dunkirk, northern France (destroyed by fire on April 11, 2017).
• The Oksbøl Refugee Camp was the largest camp for German Refugees in Denmark after World War II.
• Traiskirchen camp in eastern Austria hosts refugees that come to Europe as part of the European migrant crisis.
• Friedland refugee camp in Germany hosted refugees who fled from the former eastern territories of Germany at the end of World War II, between 1944 and 1950. Between 1950 and 1987 it was a transit centre for East German (GDR) citizens who wanted to flee to West Germany (FRG).
• International Refugee Organization camp at Lesum, near Bremen, Germany.
• Kjesäter in Sweden was a refugee camp and transit centre for Norwegian refugees fleeing Nazi persecution during World War II.
• Kløvermarken in Denmark was a refugee camp that hosted 19,000 German refugees between 1945 and 1949.
• Vrela Ribnička refugee camp in Montenegro was built in 1994 and houses refugees of Bosnian origin who were displaced during the Yugoslav Wars.
• Čardak was a camp in Serbia, for Serbs who fled from Croatia and Bosnia.
• Bagnoli camp in Naples, Italy, housed up to 10,000 refugees from Eastern Europe between 1946 and 1951.