Aid in Action

Visit to a Refugee Camp in Djibouti

Refugees registered for the first time in 15 years.

 | Friday, March 02, 2007

From Feb. 11 – 14, State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration (PRM) Washington officials Amy Wendt and Frucsina Csaszar and regional Ethiopia-based official Sam Healy participated in an assessment Mission to Djibouti to review progress on refugee registration and conditions in the Ali Addeh refugee camp. Janet Schulman, Djibouti’s USAID Representative and Nancy Estes, EA/FFP accompanied the Mission.

The recent consolidation of refugees to one camp and re-registration exercise have opened a window of opportunity to move forward on durable solutions for a portion of the refugees. Refugees have been registered for the first time in 15 years, with numbers standing at 6,332, a drop of some 4,000 from original estimates. UNHCR is using a biometric system to cut down on fraud, and this will help rationalize provision of services, food and non-food items and may provide reliable data to help restart the resettlement of eligible refugees. The Mission observed a food aid distribution at the camp, and recommended improved procedures, including increased presence of WFP and UNHCR during the distributions.