Life in a refugee camp

Imagine a crowded city of roughly the population of Halifax or of London, Ont., peopled entirely by those with no jobs, no food, water or medicine of their own, and, in many cases, suffering from disease, violence and the psychological effects of watching their children starve to death or their spouses murdered in front of their eyes.

Now imagine they're the lucky ones, that the imaginary Halifax is an island surrounded by hunger, desperation and violence. Imagine there are more people at the gates, hoping for some measure of what the people inside have - a scrap of tent, a bowl of something.

There is a city just like that: Dadaab, Kenya, built for 90,000 refugees, now swelled with about 400,000. Dadaab is only the largest of its kind. There are more than half a million Somali refugees in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. A new extension has been announced at Dadaab, but with 1,300 or more refugees arriving every day, the camp will remain congested.

The Somalis are fleeing a combination of violence and drought. Somalia, with its combination of ascendant Islamist extremism, poverty and protracted conflict, is one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

Merely adding to the size of Dadaab and other refugee settlements in surrounding countries is no solution; it is not even a particularly effective stopgap. It's creating a generation of children who'll know nothing but a fugitive, dependent life. It's a tragic waste. Instead of contributing to the economic development and stability of the region, they'll remain a drain on it for as long as they're penned in the camps. Yes, donor nations, corporations and individuals must give generously to ensure the UN refugee agency has enough tents, medicine and food. They must also work with the UNH-CR to get the camp population to a more manageable level. That means finding ways to resettle some refugees in safer situations - either back in Somalia, where possible, or in neighbouring countries, or in third countries as a last resort.

Canada has been successfully resettling some refugees from long-term camps over the past few years. Canada must continue to step up those efforts, and encourage more countries, especially those closer to conflict zones, to join the resettlement work. The UNHCR estimates that 800,000 people (or about 10 per cent of the world's refugee population) have no real choice but resettlement; but in 2010, resettlement countries provided only 80,000 spaces.

Huge, permanent refugee camps are a problem to be solved, not a solution to maintain at ever-increasing human and financial costs.