ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the work of aid agencies and other actors with displaced populations, both internally within states and as refugees across borders. Using case studies from Central and West Africa and the Middle East, we will examine the reasons why people become displaced, demonstrating that refugees are a crucial aspect of conflict in the South, with particular implications for development strategies and local and regional security. Despite a frequently asserted ‘neutrality’, through their work with refugees and in conflict situations – discussed in the following chapter – humanitarian actors affect strategies of militias, peacekeepers and civilian authorities, and these links and effects will be further explored using case study evidence. The issues surrounding refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and how to cope with them, are amongst the key challenges for development actors and those working in conflict-affected states. However, the factors that lead to individuals and/or whole communities becoming refugees, or to their displacement within their own state, are many and varied. To appreciate the complexity of the problems caused by refugee flows and displacement, and their impacts on conflict dynamics and processes of development and security, it is useful to explore some of the main causes of such phenomena and to identify where refugee and IDP populations are currently located.
