Argumentative Essay On How To Improve Refugee Camps

Many people believe it is not a good idea to improve refugee camps because refugees in particular do not reside in the camp for a long period. The local government misplaces the resources sent by UNHCR (United Nations of High Commissioner for Refugees); however, doing so will benefit both refugees and natives who live near the camps. The UNHCR should improve water treatment, bring education to people of every age, and improve educational environment and sanitation because the refugees will return home with a tremendous knowledge gained in the camps. Camps settled near the villages, many natives will benefit of the educational opportunity. But because the local government misplaces the

resources, the UNHCR should partnership with agencies like

ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) to bring improvement in the camp instead.

It is important to understand that many people on planet Earth are forced to live in refugee camps. Refugees flee from their countries of origin due to war, religious persecution, and other government issues. Refugees seek asylum and refuge in other lands. Refugees escape their countries to find a better life and opportunities for their next generation. Most of time, this movement is regularly caused by religious persecution, famine, war, and natural disaster. When a country undergoes one of the above situations, it badly pushes people away from their homeland seek for a safe place a “refugee camp.” The UN Refugee Agency and many other agencies strive to provide a living to anyone who enters the camp.

Life in the camps can be very hard. One reason is that the education system is limited. Unlike school environment in the United States where you see kids enjoying every type of modern innovated technology, in the camps a child may finish her primary and secondary school studying in blurry meaning he or she always learn about things, traffic light for example, and will never get the chance live one. Schools, most of the time, ran out of supply because they rely on external support. Education is only offered to young people and the rest end up in farm or agriculture which leads for greater number of illiterate grown up in the camps. If

the education system in the refugee camps were better equipped or resourceful in all grade levels then there will be a limit on activities that may cause HIV/AIDS. Teaching to all levels will allow a stronger workforce once they resettle in another country or in the United States. The educated individuals will be able to find opportunities of work and the government can give minimal assistance. If the refugees are taught healthy choices and better hygiene then they will not be sick. Once educated the refugees will live in any culture better and feel civilized or acculturated.

Second reason is that the condition of sanitation is poor. Lack of good sanitation brings the risks of many epidemics to increases day after day. Diseases like Cholera, Sexual Transmission Diseases (STD) infections like HIV/AID put life of many refugees in dangers. Which lead to refugees’ low life expectancy.

Third reason is that water treatment system is barely improved. The UN Refugee Agency works hard to proving good source of water by working hand to hand with the local water department. Because water is scarce in most camps, the war to find freshwater to be a huge issue. By seeing this, the UN Refugee Agency

camp us with a new system of finding water which was to construct Deep Hand Water Well Pump. With Deep Hand Water Well Pump, the chance of getting fresh water was somehow expected. Negative side effect of this source of water, it changes its taste after a period of time mostly from freshwater to salt water. Water treatment...Even though this is a huge issue and may not be resolved immediately, the refugees may learn to boil their water if they feel that the sanitation is horrific. This can be a learning process. If there is a possibility, the organization may work with the government to mainstream their water pipes into the refugee camps to reduce contaminated water.

TS: While many people don’t stay long, some do. In a refugee camp, the UN Refugee Agency provide each individual householder with three options while in living in the camp and that includes department, local integration and resettlement. With department option, refugees have the right to ask to return to their homeland if they decide to. And the UN Refugee Agency partners with International Organization for Migration (OIM) to pay for visa. In local integration, refugees in somehow decide to stay in the country that hosts the camp, the UN Refugee Agency corporates the local government so that refugees can be issued identification card and other documents. The last option, resettlement, the UN

Refugee Agency, once again, finds the countries that need people and most of these countries are industrialized ones like the United States, Canada and Austria. The refugees who decide not to stay in the country that host the refugee camp or return to their homeland because the issues are not minimized this option is best fit for them.

Regardless of the length of a stay, everyone is negatively impacted by the experience.

One negative impact is that day after day one or two refugees pass away due to an epidemic like HIV/AIDS and contagious diseases such as cholera. To minimize the situation UN Refugees Agency forms organizations in the camps which their main objectives are to teach people how to prevent the spread of cholera and HIV/AID. These organizations are voluntary ones. They organize seminar and many other way of distributing information such as giving away pamphlets to make sure everyone is aware of epidemic.

Second negative impact is that the next generations of refugees will be affected negatively if the education system is limited in resources. In this will happen if the issues in the camps are not improved. Not all kids in camps attend school because educational opportunity

Third negative impact is that the refugee life expectancy is low because of inadequate sanitation and water treatment. Little kids leave their homes and water whether it is clean or not. If water is dirt like in figure2, they take home,

place them on a steady place and wait until yellowish dirt drain. Then their parents take the water and use it for cooking or cleaning

dishes.

Many agencies like UNHCR and people work hard to improve the conditions of the camps. They find various ways to provide the best environment as possible to unexpected increase number of refugees by working close with its traditional partners like United Nation (UNICEF), Food and Agriculture Organization FAO and UNESCO and many other supporters.

These people know that there are many benefits in improving the conditions. Because cholera infection is mostly caused by unclean environment, once it is cleaned, the number of cholera infected people will reduce. Life of a human being relies on clean water due to the contaminated water many contagious diseases will devastate life of many refugees. By bringing a good educational environment and opportunity to people of every age, many refugees will return home (if they decide to) with tremendous knowledge gained in the camp.

However, their efforts are often undermined. One reason is that money is allocated becomes stolen. The UN Refugees Agency meets with the local government of the country that hosts the refugee to providing the government funds for whether building roads, water system and many other local needs. But

most of the time, the local government does not complete task discussed with UN Refugees Agency.

Another reason is that population is fluid and transitory. In most camps, for example, refugees do not reside for a long period of time. And the worst part is that even the UN Refugees Agency is not acknowledged by their departure.

Third reason is that natives battling for scarce resources. The refugees’ life is not only worse instead the native communities living around the camps undergo a huge poverty rate. So if the UN Refugees Agency brings a good environmental setting for refugee, the natives will not be pleased of this action because refugee will be enjoying a delightful life in the camps while they are suffering in the camp.

To minimize this issue, first, the UNHCR should consider partnering with outside agencies like ACTED. As the UN Refugees Agency normally does its partnership strategy, it should find other agencies that are capable of fixing what is needed like in the presence of flood. The flood specialists should be contacted immediately instead of sending funds to the local government which will not push all its effort on rescuing refugees.

Second, the UNHCR could increase the resettlement system. Fort those refugees who seek for another country different from their homeland or the host-refugee-camp, UN Refugees Agency find more countries that are in interest of

people. Because with a massive number of refugee per short period of time may lead to insufficient resources. The resettlement plan will help a little bit.

If you are interested in this issue there are various ways you make a difference. One of them is by supporting though different organization or private occupations to doing fundraiser. And if so, please do not hesitate to contact the UN Refugee Agency USA at [phone] or visit in person. The street and mailing address is 1775 K Street NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006. They open Monday through Friday from nine Ante Meridian to seven Post Meridian (9:00 AM-7:00 PM). They will be more than happy to getting your point of view about how to better life in the refugee camp. Remember your idea can make me a huge difference to someone’s life.