Viewpoint – The State of the World’s Refugees: Adapting Health Responses to Urban Environments

JAMA   
August 15, 2012, Vol 308, No. 7
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/issue.aspx?journalid=67&issueid=24772&direction=P

Viewpoint
The State of the World’s Refugees: Adapting Health Responses to Urban Environments
António Guterres, MEng; Paul Spiegel, MD, MPH

Extract [Free full text]
The forced displacement of populations, across borders and within their own countries, is one of the most visible and enduring manifestations of persecution and conflict. At the end of 2011, more than 42 million people had been forcibly displaced from their homes by conflict, including 15 million refugees and 26 million internally displaced people (IDPs).1 In 2011, more than 4.3 million people were newly uprooted, with some 800 000 fleeing to neighboring countries in humanitarian crises stretching from Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, Syria, the border between Sudan and South Sudan, to the Horn of Africa1 and more recently due to conflict in Mali.2

These new emergencies unfolded alongside unresolved crises that have resulted in millions of people living in situations of protracted displacement, often for decades. Millions of refugees and IDPs from countries such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iraq remain unable to return to their homes after extended periods in exile. The vast majority of refugees—approximately 80%—are hosted in the developing world, primarily in neighboring countries…