AI06 - The Refugee Camps and the Displaced Persons as an International Issue in 19th- and 21st Century History: African and Middle Eastern Case Studies

The aim of this presentation is that to highlight the historical reconstruction of the idea of refugee camps since the end of WWII with a connection to the early attempt soon after WWI, when this issue started to be addressed by many diplomatic talks at the national, international and multilateral level (in particular within the League of Nations - LoN). The LoN, precisely, performed an essential, and quite unknown, role in the legal definition of the concept of refugee, in the creation of a protection system, particularly after the tragic experiences of Russian exiled during the Great War. The presentation will underline the political position of the Great Powers in the international organization in the light of the creation of refugee camps in Africa and in the Middle East, before and in consequence of the outbreak of the Second World War. 

This paper will attempt to highlight the nineteenth-century Ottoman experience regarding the management of large-scale migratory flows giving archival evidence of it.

The loss of almost all Ottoman territory began in the first half of the XIX century and continued until the following century, during the Balkan War of 1912-13 and after the Great War. Million Muslim refugees (muhacirs) arrived in Ottoman Anatolia and Arab Near East from 1783 to 1922 (approximately 5-7 million from the Balkans, almost one million from the Caucasus etc.).

Many of these migrants escaped to Anatolia as a result of the widespread persecution of Ottoman Muslims that occurred during the last years of the Ottoman Empire in the new Balkan states, and to the Arab Near East as a result of the European partition of the North African lands.

Today in the Republic of Turkey at least a quarter of the population of 85 million have ancestry from these refugees. In the Eastern Arab countries, there is a part of the population with an ancestry from migrant flows coming from Europe, Caucasus and Africa.

Therefore, the Ottoman state had to deal with the migrant emergency earlier than expected, and to manage the numerous refugee camps since the mid-19th century.

Since February 2011 uprising against the Gaddafi’s regime unfolded, the Libyan-Tunisian frontier witnessed what seemed like an unprecedented displacement of both Libyan nationals and non-nationals fleeing armed confrontations in the country’s West by crossing the border that goes from Jabal al-Nefousa to the coastal town of Zwara into south-eastern Tunisia. Ever since, the increasing politicization of cross-border mobilities generated by the regime changes of 2010-2011 has led most academic scholarship to only focus on the present uses of these borderlands and the geopolitical concerns related to them. Consequently, the way subsequent population movements along and across the geographies of this borderlands historically factored in diverse agendas of group resistance against what I named “unwanted masters” - both colonial and internal - has remained essentially unexplored to date. Relying on archival materials collected at the National Archives in Tunis, Italian Diplomatic Archives, and the Central Archive of Rome, this paper will bring the observation of displacement dynamics throughout the Libyan-Tunisian frontier back to the period that goes from 1911 to 1924. It will be interrogated how diverse waves of population movements were managed, while also serving contesting, negotiating and/or accommodating the establishment of Italian colonial rule in Tripolitania, as well as the internal power dynamics that informed the struggle for political leadership among local notables. 

The characteristic of refugee settlements, created to be temporary and impermanent, contradicts with the reality, where they expand over several decades and generations, functioning more like major cities than temporary camps. The types of dwellings and the infrastructures have evolved from rapidly installed tents, and prefabricated containers, to self-built brick houses. In most cases, infrastructure and resources, such as water, food and energy, and lately, access to mobile networks are largely inadequate. This panel examines historical Palestinian refugee settlements, and recent Syrian camps, to identify the territorial context, often in the margins of cities and society, as well the construction processes and adaptations over time, including the typologies of the built form and public spaces. Looking back seven decades, and viewing forward, what are the new futures for these settlements? Probing urban governance, and the types of relationships – between rights and space – opens important conversations to recognize the specific cultures of these extra-territorial spaces outside state sovereignties. With regard to improving the well-being, health and livelihoods of those living in the camps, we examine agile, light and temporary solutions to create more vibrant social infrastructure and facilities, as well as to provide sustainable sources. Coupled with training and capacity building for the residents, new skills and know-how can be transmitted. Refugees are already growing vegetables in the desert using recycled materials and aquaponic systems and permaculture is successfully being implemented in Jordan. A new model to create smart communities in which the forcibly displaced can become self-sufficient and can contribute to the economic growth of their host countries and propose technology solutions for education, health and financial development, while creating better integrated food, water, energy and waste systems.