Emerging Technologies Helping To Combat The Refugee Crisis.
According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), at the end of 2019, 79.5 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide, including 26 million refugees, 4.2 million asylum-seekers, and 45.7 million internally displaced people. Refugees account for 1 per cent of the world’s population who have fled their homes due to violent conflicts, persecution, and food insecurity. The current worldwide refugee crisis is often referred to as the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.
Concern International states that since they began keeping track of the world’s largest refugee crises last year, the number of people forcibly displaced around the world has continued to grow at an alarming rate. The situation has deteriorated further due to the Covid pandemic.
Several Humanitarian Organisations have turned to technology to solve this crisis.
Let’s look at these technologies that are being utilized.
- Geospatial Technology
Many NGO’s are using GIS to address the refugee issue. For example, humanitarian Organisation Medair uses the power of geo-ICT to help communities of refugees more efficiently. To reach Syrian refugees living in these scattered settlements, Medair’s Information Management team created a Geographic Information System. The system gives an address to Syrian families who lost their permanent homes in the conflict. The mapped locations are updated in real-time and the information made accessible to all humanitarian actors in Lebanon so that the needs of all refugees living ins informal settlements are recognized and addressed effectively. Even eight years after the initial influx of refugees, Medair maps more than 8,000 settlements every year.
2.DRONES
Drones are increasingly in use in countries like Niger, Burkina Faso and Uganda to help map huge populations of displaced people, assess their needs and figure out how best to get assistance to them. They are also being used to evaluate environmental damage caused by displacement.
The country of Austria has begun testing drones on its borders to Hungary and Slovenia. Equipped with live-tracking and heat-sensing cameras, the drones will be used to detect the movements of smugglers and irregular migrants to identify genuine refugees from the ones trying to profit from their desperate situation.
3.Satellite Imagery
Satellite mapping is also enabling humanitarian workers to prepare and plan the best strategy for the deployment of aid. Not only can satellite communications technology save lives of refugees in transit, but imaging and data gathering software are supporting refugee communities longer-term.
Satellite images captured early on 3 March, 2020 with WorldView-3 by European Space Imaging, show long lines of refugees on the road, numerous buses and trucks, as well as temporary housing facilities scattered adjacent to the road, extending well into the nearby forest.
Several buses on the road towards the border are clearly identifiable, correlating with reports that refugees are being bused to the area. In addition, numerous smaller vehicles with crowds of people surrounding can be seen. This could be indicative of aid support in the area.
When it comes to permanently solving the refugee crises, technology alone will not do. Governments and International Organisations will have to get to the root cause of these conflicts and unfavorable economic conditions that cause people to flee their counties to become refugees. But as for now technology and innovation will play a big part in ending this crisis.
