Dear Deeply Readers,
Welcome to the archives of Refugees Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on April 1, 2019, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on refugees and migration. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.
We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].
Exploring the key policies, players and innovations in refugee health.
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Izza Leghtas
Dina Baslan
Help for refugees in Jordan is focused almost exclusively on Syrians. Researchers Izza Leghtas and Dina Baslan make a plea for Yemenis, Somalis and Sudanese not to be forgotten.
The Gesher Clinic in Jaffa is down to opening nine hours a week despite the overwhelming need for mental healthcare. Its patients, many of whom survived Sinai torture camps, face an uncertain future.
Meet the Italians driven by a sense of history and humanity to identify the refugees and migrants who have died trying to cross the Mediterranean.
Paul Spiegel Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health
In the first issue of the Humanitarian Health Digest, Paul Spiegel stresses the need to highlight the lack of palliative care in humanitarian emergencies. Both refugees and nationals with life-limiting illnesses need more dignified, cost-effective care, he argues.
The refugee crisis saw many journalists confronted with trauma and hypocrisy on their home turf. Professor Anthony Feinstein discusses his latest work on the effects on those involved and their wider relevance.
Philippe Carr Regional Communications Advisor, MSF Spain
As the temporary camp in South Sudan’s troubled city of Malakal enters its fourth year, residents are taking their own lives. Philippe Carr from MSF recounts doctors’ efforts to instill some hope.
India has not signed the U.N. Refugee Convention, leaving thousands of Rohingya refugees excluded from public health and nutrition programs. Now refugees are petitioning India’s Supreme Court for protection against deportation and to live in “humane conditions.”
An increasing number of unaccompanied migrant children and teenagers are stuck on the Greek island of Lesbos due to a shortage of shelter spaces in Greece. They’re growing angry and frustrated while facing a lengthy wait to be transferred to the mainland.
Most refugees live in countries with scant mental health resources, despite a growing body of research on how displacement impacts mental health. In this edition of our ‘Experts to Watch’ series, we look at some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in this field.
Asylum seeker Francine Kalala is suing South Africa’s government, claiming that two hospitals turned her away while in labor – forcing her to give birth in a train station. Activists say the neglect and abuse she suffered are rife in the country’s healthcare system.
In the Rohingya refugee camps of southern Bangladesh, women-only support centers run by volunteers offer a safe space for those who have survived violence during Myanmar’s brutal military campaign.
In this firsthand account of a day aboard the rescue ship Aquarius in the central Mediterranean, some lives are saved but others lost. Survivors testify to the diverse motives of migrants and the intense suffering on land in Libya.
Sine Plambech Researcher, Anthropologist and Film Director, Working on Irregular Migration, Trafficking, Sex Work
Accusing migrant women of bringing ‘anchor babies’ to Europe misunderstands their journeys and motives, says researcher and anthropologist Sine Plambech. Understanding their real stories explains why so few are willing to return.
We collect the highlights of our special focus on refugee health, including a series of in-depth reports on pregnancy during exile and refugees in the medical field telling their own stories.
Neither the Syrian war nor the severe restrictions of exile in Lebanon could keep Dr. Ibrahim al-Masri from his work. The Syrian doctor, now resettled in Canada, tells his story of fighting for the rights and health of refugees.
Growing up in a refugee camp, Sayah Bogor saw that disease can be as deadly as war. It set her on a path of scientific study, medical research and of one day, she hopes, becoming a doctor. Now a 24-year-old refugee in the U.S., she describes her journey into medicine.
A clinic for refugees in Colorado aims to provide an alternative model for refugee health services in the U.S. Its founder, P.J. Parmar, discusses his for-profit approach, Medicaid and the inefficiencies of the U.S. healthcare system.
On the Thai-Myanmar border, refugees who fled one of the world’s longest civil wars live in limbo, with alarmingly high suicide rates. As their options for resettlement narrow, some are beginning to return to Myanmar and the challenges of reintegration.
Decades of war in South Sudan have left high numbers of people with disabilities and many are unable to access aid or flee violence targeting civilians. Human Rights Watch’s Jonathan Pedneault discusses the need to protect displaced people with disabilities.
Iran has been lauded for providing free healthcare or subsidized insurance to many Afghan refugees. Yet some 2 million undocumented Afghans have no such benefits and live in fear of debt and deportation.
David Evangelista President and Managing Director, Special Olympics Europe Eurasia
Refugees with intellectual disabilities are a largely forgotten and highly vulnerable group on the margins of the global displacement crisis. David Evangelista of the Special Olympics explains how the movement offers an alternative model for embracing refugees.
Pressure from the E.U. to cap the number of refugees and migrants allowed to leave the islands has broken the system meant to identify torture victims and other vulnerable cases.
In the world’s largest refugee camp, giving birth can be a real challenge. But maternal mortality at Bidi Bidi in Uganda is low, and women often report better delivery conditions than they received at home. Amy Fallon reports for our series ‘Refugee Mothers: Pregnancy in Exile.’
Despite Lebanon’s relatively advanced healthcare system, pregnancy and childbirth are fraught with danger and unaffordable costs for Syrians, reports Tania Karas for our series “Refugee Mothers: Pregnancy in Exile.”
Bella Nshimirimana, a social worker from Burundi, was recently named Uganda’s ‘Refugee Woman of the Year.’ She spoke to Refugees Deeply about the challenges for refugees in the capital Kampala and the discrimination refugees face accessing health services.
Lenio Capsaskis Senior Fellow, Academy Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Health focus and funding in Greece needs to shift from an emergency response centered on NGOs, toward building a more comprehensive and inclusive national health system, argues Chatham House’s Lenio Capsaskis.
Paul Spiegel Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health
In an excerpt from The Lancet, refugee health expert Paul Spiegel argues that the humanitarian system is broken and urges wholesale reform, outlining four ways that humanitarians need to change to be equipped for future public health action in crises.
The complex health needs of the world’s growing displaced population pose major challenges for refugee communities, aid workers and international and national health systems. We look at some of the leading thinkers on refugee health for our “Experts to Watch” series.
Three years into the war in Ukraine, international attention and aid to displaced people has waned. In an area near the war zone, Natasha Bluth reports on volunteer groups trying to fill gaps in support for one of the world’s largest internally displaced populations.
Marni Sommer Worked in Global Health and Development
For millions of girls and women, menstruation is a burden. Here’s why helping displaced and poor women and girls with their periods is a way to show them proper respect.
Among the estimated 75,000 Rohingya who fled their homes in Myanmar into Bangladesh following a military crackdown, Dr. Nur Kabir has become a savior for refugees at Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh.
The Trump administration has cut funding to the UNFPA, which provides health services to Syrian refugees in Jordan. For Sultana, that could mean an end to vital treatment for PTSD.
Rita Nehme Reproductive Health Officer, International Rescue Committee
Ashley Wolfington Reproductive Health Senior Technical Adviser, IRC’s Health Unit
In the refugee camps of Uganda, South Sudanese and local women are being given access to proper maternity care and contraception, often for the first time.
The largest displacement camp housing Iraqis who fled the battle to recapture Mosul lies next to oil fields scorched by ISIS. The oil fields are still emitting toxic fumes that are sickening the camp’s residents.
In South Sudan, people are sheltering from conflict wherever they can, including a network of islands in the swamps of Unity State. On one island, where 2,300 displaced people live without access to clean water or toilets, cholera has become rife.
In Uganda’s massive Bidibidi camp, which is home to more than 272,000 South Sudanese refugees, aid workers are trying to identify and help sexual violence survivors – despite a dearth of resources.
Tens of thousands of women refugees are in Greece, suffering from violence, unsanitary conditions and food shortages, Marcy Hersh of the Women’s Refugee Commission tells Women & Girls Hub.
Following Save the Children’s report on psychological scarring caused by the Syrian war, the charity has created a series of animated photos of refugee children explaining the devastating impact of trauma on their lives.
Every day in Tel Aviv, about 5,000 children of asylum seekers attend daycare centers run by women with little or no training. Recent reports of infant deaths at some of these makeshift nurseries have caused a public uproar, but little action from the government.
At least 30,000 Syrians have lost limbs in the war, according to conservative estimates. Among them is Husam al-Zeno who escaped Eastern Ghouta using prosthetic legs made for a young girl and now manages an aid distribution center for fellow refugees in Turkey.
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