Refugee Camps
100 Million Refugees Worldwide
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement established to provide displaced people with emergency shelter, water and sanitation, food assistance, healthcare, and protection services after conflict, persecution, or disaster forces them to flee their homes. Camps are designed to provide immediate safety while longer-term solutions—resettlement, return, or local integration—are pursued.
| Camp / settlement | Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cox’s Bazar (Rohingya camps) | Bangladesh | One of the largest refugee settlements globally. |
| Dadaab | Kenya | Long-running complex with multiple camps. |
| Kakuma | Kenya | Major camp with diverse nationalities. |
| Zaatari | Jordan | Large, semi-urbanized camp infrastructure. |
Populations fluctuate; use UNHCR/agency dashboards for current figures.
Safe water access, latrines, drainage, and hygiene promotion reduce disease risk and improve dignity.
Shelter quality, spacing, fire breaks, and inclusive layout planning influence safety and livability.
Food assistance, therapeutic feeding, and market access help stabilize nutrition—especially for children and pregnant or lactating women.
Primary care, vaccinations, maternal health, and protection services (including lighting and safe spaces) reduce avoidable harm.
Donors and implementing partners typically prioritize interventions that reduce long-term operating costs, stabilize food supply, improve health outcomes, and strengthen community resilience. Programs with clear baselines, monitoring plans, and measurable results are more likely to scale.
| Outcome | Example KPI | How to measure |
|---|---|---|
| Improved nutrition | Servings of fresh produce/week | Household surveys + distribution logs |
| Water savings | Liters saved per bed/system | Irrigation meter + schedule tracking |
| Local production | Kg harvested per month | Harvest logs + spot checks |
| Capacity building | People trained + retention | Training attendance + follow-up |
| Reduced dependency | % of produce sourced locally | Market audits + procurement records |
For broader context, see Food Crisis. For resilient production models that reduce water and fertilizer dependency, explore Crop Circle Gardens and Circular Agriculture, plus Water-Smart Technologies. If you’re building program funding models, review Farm Subsidies.
Around the globe, refugee camps provide sanctuary to 100 million displaced individuals. These camps serve as transient abodes, ensuring safety and basic provisions for people who have been coerced to abandon their homes due to violence, natural calamities, conflict, or persecution. Often, these camps are established by governments, NGOs, or international organizations like the UNHCR.
Refugee camps can be found worldwide, with a significant number in developing nations hosting large refugee populations. As per the UNHCR, the world's largest refugee camp is Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, accommodating over 900,000 Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar due to violence. Despite the Bangladeshi government's and humanitarian organizations' endeavors to ameliorate living conditions, refugees continue to struggle with overcrowding, inadequate sanitation, and limited access to basic amenities.
Other notable refugee camps include Dadaab in Kenya, sheltering over 200,000 refugees, and Zaatari in Jordan, hosting more than 80,000 Syrian refugees.
Hundreds of refugee camps are scattered around the world, a figure that fluctuates as new camps are erected and old ones are decommissioned. In 2021 alone, UNHCR reported 34 refugee camps in Kenya. Apart from these official camps, refugees often inhabit informal settlements with limited access to basic services.
Refugee camps are indispensable for individuals who have been displaced due to conflict or violence and are in dire need of a safe haven. These camps are intended to be temporary, safe spaces where individuals can access necessities like food, water, shelter, and healthcare until they can return to their homes or find a more permanent residence.
Despite their necessity, refugee camps are fraught with numerous challenges. One of the major problems is overcrowding, leading to issues like inadequate sanitation, lack of privacy, and increased risk of diseases.
Poor sanitation and lack of clean water are prominent problems that can lead to severe health crises and even fatalities, particularly among children and the elderly. The crowded conditions and inadequate sanitation contribute to the rapid spread of diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and diarrhea.
The lack of educational and job opportunities also poses a problem, hindering refugees' efforts to rebuild their lives and achieve self-sufficiency. Refugees, especially women and children, are often exposed to violence and exploitation. Additionally, the shortage of funds for refugee camps can further exacerbate the provision of basic services, leading to tension and conflicts over scarce resources.
Although refugee camps are critical for providing safety and basic services to millions, they are far from perfect solutions. Addressing the root causes of displacement and investing in sustainable solutions that empower refugees to rebuild their lives is crucial for the global community.
One solution is to recognize that some refugee camps should be regarded as permeant are as such an effort should be undertaken to develop infrastructure like proper sanitation facilities, clean water delivery systems and inhouse food production, which could be in the form as small footprint easily managed farms and gardens.
The adoption and deployment of Crop Circle Farms And Gardens would have an immediate impact provide nutritious produce at the point of use but the potential for agricultural training and education where people can learn to feed themselves and others. Crop Circle Farms LLC and Growing To Give, a nonprofit in Washington have teamed up to create such an imitative.
Turn your 1 acre into a high-yield, profitable farm.
Crop Circle Farms specializes in designing and building fully engineered, low-impact farm systems that use 90% less water, 85% less fertilizer, and deliver two to three times the yield of traditional farming.
Whether you have a vacant lot, an empty field, a resort, school, island community, or small family farm, we’ll build it from the ground up for you. Our team handles everything from farm layout and installation to irrigation, root systems, training, and first planting.
Contact Us to explore a custom Crop Circle Farm design for your property.
Help us expand our mission to revolutionize agriculture globally. We are seeking partners to implement Crop Circle Farms to feed people in need. Together, we can build scalable food production systems that save water, reduce costs, and feed thousands of people. Contact Growing To Give
