Displaced people

In the context of emergencies, displaced people are people who have had to leave their homes as a result of a natural, technological or deliberate event.

Political turbulence in many regions of the world has increased the number of displaced people fleeing complex emergencies and disasters. They often end up in large camps where environmental health measures are insufficient.

Displaced people include internally displaced people (people who remain in their own countries) as well as refugees (people who cross international borders).

• Refugee definition (from UNHCR)

WHO's support to displaced populations is led by the department of Health Action in Crisis. The resources listed below deal with the environmental health issues resulting from the displacement of large number or people, such as the lack of safe water, poor sanitation and improper waste disposal.

Key resources

• Environmental concerns during refugee operations (UNHCR)
• Environmental guidelines (UNHCR, 2005) [pdf 1.33mb]
• Environmental refugees: myth or reality (UNHCR, 2001) [pdf 75.8kb]
• Handbook of selected lessons learned from the field: refugee operations and environmental management (UNHCR, 2001) [pdf 1.94mb]
• Mental health of refugees (UNHCR, 1996) [pdf 484kb]
• Practicing and promoting sound environmental management in refugee/returnee operations (UNHCR, 2001) [pdf 2.98mb]
• Principles of sustainable environmental management (UNHCR)
• Refugee health (UNHCR)
• Refugee operations and environmental management: key principles for decision-making (UNHCR, 1998) [pdf 1.25mb]
• Refugee operations and environmental management: selected lessons learned (UNHCR) [pdf 1.84mb]

Related sites

• International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
• Médecins sans Frontières (MSF)
• United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA)
• The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)