Jamam refugee camp, Upper Nile State – March 2012
Refugees from Blue Nile State in Sudan fled to seek safety in the refugee camps at Doro and Jamam, in Maban County. More than 80,000 refugees have gathered in an inhospitable environment that cannot support this number of people, leaving them totally reliant on humanitarian assistance. These photos were taken in the dry season, with a window of opportunity to get everything ready prior to the rainy season closing fast.

Musina, South Africa – February 2012
Girls gather around the table to do their homework at the URC church where the girls shelter is.
In 2007, massive numbers of Zimbabweans started seeking refuge in South Africa, mostly illegally, due to the collapse of the economy and the political violence nationwide. MSF launched two projects providing humanitarian relief and medical assistance to the refugees at the end of 2007. In Musina, the northernmost town of the Limpopo province right across the border from Zimbabwe, MSF provides medical care for the new arrivals, collaborating with the public hospital to refer patients for secondary level care, chronic patient assessment and treatment of HIV and TB.

Liben Region – December 2011
After they have been to the reception centre, refugees coming from Somalia are moved to a transit camp where they are supposed to stay for a week. Approximately 8000 people are now living in transit camps and the majority has been there for over 2 months, the poor living condition attributes to the deteriorating health status of these refugees. In the only health centre in the camp MSF provides primary health care, psycho social care, runs a nutrition program, and an out Patient Department.

Somali refugees arrive in Ifo 2 camp after being moved by officials from the outskirts of Dagahaley camp. Dadaab, with roughly 400,000 refugees, is the largest refugee camp in the world. The camp is grossly over capacity, and the refugees experience an ever-shrinking access to essential services such as water, sanitation, food and shelter, also because they have been sharing their rations with the new arrivals. At the current pace of arrival MSF estimates that the camp’s population will total 500’000 before the end of 2011, and living conditions are only expected to deteriorate further.

This week, world leaders will gather in Geneva to commemorate 60 years of the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Yet it is an anniversary that the world’s 15.1 million refugees have little reason to celebrate. Today, states are increasingly shutting their borders and restricting the assistance they give to refugees and people seeking asylum.

Shousha camp, May 2011
A recently arrived Oromo clan (Ethiopian ethnic group) are having a meeting.
The war in Libya has forced more than 600 000 civilians – foreign workers, migrants and Libyans – to flee the country, mainly to Tunisia in the west and Egypt in the east, but also across the desert to Niger, Chad and beyond or across the Mediterranean to Lampedusa.
Assistance to Libyan refugees in southern Tunisia is mainly provided by local communities out of solidarity, while a minority is assisted by the international community. Tataouine governorate alone is hosting around 60’000 Libyan refugees.

Lampedusa, Italy – May 2011
Libyan immigrants coming by boat from Zanzour, Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Friday May 13th, 2011. By Saturday morning over 1600 refugees had arrived on the island. The refugees come from all over Africa: Somalia, Eritrea, Nigeria…

Nimba District, Liberia – March 13, 2011
Tens of new refugees are reaching the village of Kparblee in Liberia, in the district of Nimba bordering Ivory Coast. This family just arrived from the city Toulepleu, where fighting erupted early March between pro-Outtara forces and the army loyal to disputed president Gbagbo. As the situation is deeply deteriorating in Ivocry Coast, they spent seven days in the bush, looking for places to sleep and for food. They didn’t want to go to Liberia too fast, hoping that the fighting would stop. They were exhausted when they reached the Liberian border. This family is currently staying in a school building of the village of Kparblee. They have relatives in the village, but will have to wait a few days before being able to go to their home.

Makpundu refugee camp – November 19, 2010
Widows from Lord’s Resistance Army attacks Ngbitimo 45 (left) and Letina (right) during a Medecins Sans Frontieres counselling session in Makpundu refugee camp, South Sudan.
With the world’s attention on the recent referendum determining the separation of southern and northern Sudan, the south of the country continues to face a dynamic that instils alarm and anxiety and exacerbates the situation of an already vulnerable population. MSF continues providing medical assistance to people who have been affected by the Ugandan rebel group Lord Resistance Army (LRA) violence in Yambio, Western Equatoria State in southern Sudan.

Johannesburg – February 2010
Zimbabwean asylum seekers at the Methodist Church in Johannesburg. Up to two thousand Zimbabweans, many of them victims of the 2008 xenophobic violence in South Africa, seek shelter nightly at the church for security.

Johannesburg – March 2010
Zimbabwean refugees are silhouetted in the windows of the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg, March 4, 2010. Up to two thousand Zimbabweans, many of them victims of the 2008 xenophpbic violence in South Africa, seek shelter nightly at the church for security.

Kutupalong makeshift camp – December 2009
A violent crackdown on stateless Rohingya living in Bangladesh has led thousands of people to seek safety at Kutupalong makeshift camp. Driven from their homes in the Cox’s Bazaar area by local authorities and vigilante groups, around 2,000 people arrived in January alone, swelling camp numbers to nearly 30,000.

Phetchabun province – August 2007
MSF has been assisting some 7,800 Hmong refugees living in the village of Huay Nam Khao in Thailand’s Phetchabun province since July 2005. These refugees fled Laos starting in 2005 with some seeking safety from attacks on their mountain villages and others from religious or political persecution while yet others are looking for better economic opportunities in Thailand or a third country. In December 2009, more than 4, 000 ethnic Hmong have been forcibly repatriated from Thailand to Laos.

Oujda, Morocco – December 2009
Migrants stuck in Oujda, on the border between Algeria and Morocco. Reinforcement of border controls mean that a growing number of migrants and asylum seekers have found themselves blocked in Morocco, unable to continue their journey to Europe or to return home. They are left with an increasing sense of frustration and hopelessness.

Lesvos, greece – October 2009
Undocumented migrants are living in an abandoned building in the island of Lesvos. In the last few years, an increasing number of undocumented migrants, asylum seekers and refugees arrive in Greece. They often flee from unstable regions, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Palestine and when they arrive in Greece are faced with extremely precarious conditions.

Brussels – November18, 2009
A kosovar family eats lunch at the soup kitchen organised by CIRÉ and Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen at the Saint-Roch church in Brussels.
At this moment, more than 1,000 asylum seekers have nowhere to go and survive in the streets, with winter rapidly approaching.

Dadaab, Kenya – August 22, 2009
A boy stands beside scavenging birds feeding of carcasses at a slaughter house in Dadaab, the world’s biggest refugee complex, on the border with Somalia. An estimated 5,000 people arrive monthly to the camps, which are operated by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The camps have been in operation for since 1991 and are currently home to some 289,500 inhabitants.

Ahwar, Yemen – December 2008
Two Somali women refugees wait for a consultation with an MSF psychological counselor at clinic in Ahwar after surviving a dangerous two-day journey in overcrowded smugglers’ boats from northern Somalia.

Paris, France – August 2009
The mayor of Paris has decided to end the nocturnal occupation in the Villemin Square in the tenth arrondissement of Paris. This garden has been the site of squatting by hundreds of mostly Afghan refugees since the closure of the Sangatte center near Calais. Hundreds of Afghans are currently living in deplorable conditions in Paris; some are in transit, others are applying for asylum in France.

Cox´s Bazar, Bangladesh, June 30 2009.
Some of the Rohingya live along the beach on the road between Cox´s Bazar and the Kutupalong makeshift [refugee] camp. They try to earn a little money by fishing. There are thought to be around 200,000 to 400,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh today.

Lampedusa, Italy – December 2004
The small island of Lampedusa south of Sicily belongs to Italy, but lies closer to Africa than Europe. About 10 000 boat migrants from different African countries arrived here in 2004. In the autumn, Italian authorities started returning the migrants to Libya without processing their requests for asylum.