counting the internally displaced persons reality...
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1 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
Counting the Internally Displaced Persons
Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
Moad Abu Zamazim
This paper was presented at a Conference Titled:
"Displaced people in Libya ... Challenges and Solutions"
January 4, 2017
Tripoli, Libya
2 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
Counting the Internally Displaced Persons
Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
Moad Abu Zamazim
Introduction :
The issue of internal displacement in Libya is considered to be a big dilemma that
contributes to the complexity of the internal situation and disturbs civil peace in the long
and short term. The escalation of displacement movement in Libya during the past years
caused problems that further exacerbated the crisis and leading to it spread widely in
Libyan society.
This research paper tackles the process of counting displaced persons in Libya in the
past years and addresses the ways to improve it in order to obtain more accurate figures
on the numbers of internally displaced persons.
Preface:
Following the February revolution's events, armed clashes erupted in many areas in
Libya leading to the displacement of people from their homes. The first movement of
displacement was from "Nafousa" Mountains area towards Tunisian borders in "Wazin"
and "Dhehiba". After which came the displacement of some civilians from "Misrata"
towards "Benghazi" using bulldozers and from "Benghazi" towards eastern towns. This
situation prevailed for a short period of time during the revolution and came to end when
the combat operations stopped in these cities. From then, the second phase of
displacement started when rebel forces started attacking certain areas. After the
withdrawal of the old administration, or rather its defeat in those areas, people began to
gradually move to other farther areas that support the old administration seeking shelter
3 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
and safety and fearing revenge. Consequently, most displaced towns are neighboring
other rebel towns that suffered siege and killing for long periods of time. As soon as the
regime collapsed, displacement movements broke out, one city after another. People
decided to leave their homes before the arrival of rebel forces, such was the case in
"Tawergha", "Al-Awina", "Zawiya", "Al-Bakour", "El-Gawalesh" and western
"Riyayna". After the withdraw of the previous administration’s forces, these areas were
completely abandoned. Since the end of the revolution and until 2014, "Tripoli" and
"Benghazi" have turned into the largest hosts of displaced people coming from all
Libyan regions. Until 2014, the mass displacement in Libya had been limited to
supporters of the previous administration and most of individual displacement cases
were due to the personal affiliations of these individuals. The absence of security, and
not holding officials who committed crimes responsible prior and during the revolution
led to a state of chaos and attempts to take the law into one's own hand, along with the
widespread of the idea of revenge among Libyans. All these violations led to the spread
of displacement among wealthy people, who support the previous administration, to
Tunisia and Egypt. The internal displacement was limited in most cases to those who
cannot afford it to live outside Libya. Given the overall situation, the lack of security
and protection for refugees in their communities and camps encourages the migration
to outside Libya. We make mention here of the attacks that targeted the refugees' camp
in "Tawergha" and of violations and recurrent random killings in the past five years.
Given the limited number of displaced people between the years 2011 and 2014, the
counting process was fairly easy. Following the establishment of a first Social Affairs
Ministry, other affiliated offices were created in most cities in Libya. Among the main
functions of these offices is counting displaced persons within the scope of each
municipality. The counting is conducted when the displaced present themselves for
registration. Social affairs offices are collecting data including the number of family
members, where they came from and where they are settled. This might be the most
common method for counting displaced people among government offices. This method
4 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
is primarily based on the initiative of displaced persons to register themselves in these
offices. However, given that there are no motivations to do so, there are a significant
number of families which miss the registration. On another aspect, some use the security
condition and the secrecy of information as an excuse to keep the data and not sharing
the names with other relevant bodies. To overcome these difficulties and obstacles in
monitoring most displaced people and their accurate number, social affairs offices
decided to commit themselves, public institutions, and local and international charitable
organizations not to distribute any aids to unregistered families and individuals in an
attempt to urge them to register themselves in these offices.
The data provided by social affairs offices and other civil society organizations, which
are involved in the field of displaced persons, are the main source of information for
international organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration. The number of displaced
people in the period between the end of 2011 and mid-2014 reached 70,000 persons.
Since mid-2014 and after the launch of Operation Dignity in "Benghazi" and then the
launch of Operation Dawn in "Tripoli", clashes widened to include several cities in the
west, east and south of Libya. Due to the widespread of clashes, the number of displaced
people increased by four times to reach a historical level, in mid-2015, of nearly 450
thousand displaced persons in total, spread over various areas in Libya. This sharp
increase in displaced persons numbers will seem normal when learning about the series
of events during that period, which are :
Fighting in "Benghazi" in several overcrowded neighborhoods such as "Al-Sabri",
and "Souk Al-Hout "
The Battle of Tripoli Airport that led to the displacement of most areas neighbouring
the airport.
The conflict in "Al-Kufra."
The war that lasted for one and half years in "Ubari".
5 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
When the Battle of Tripoli Airport and conflict in Tripoli came to end, conflicts were
transferred to the region of "Wershafana" where severe clashes led to the displacement
of most residents of this wide region. Meanwhile, there were clashes extending along
the coastal cities from "Zawiya" to "Zwara" as well as in the regions down "Nafousa"
Mountain between forced of Operation Dawn and forces associated with Operation
Dignity in the western region. Subsequently came the war in "Kikla" and the
displacement of all its residents, and finally the war in "Sirte" which led to the biggest
waves of displacement in Libya as of now.
The points addressed above are the main reasons which led to a significant increase of
displacement movements. We note that the chronology of events did neither positively
contribute to solving the crisis of displaced people, nor minimized the existing figures.
As soon as a war stops or a treaty is signed, displaced people rush to return to their home
regions, while another war that is worse than the previous ones ignites somewhere else.
The expansion of clashes and fighting in the last two years have increased the burden
on all local and international organizations working in the field of counting displaced
people. The increase in numbers of displaced persons has to be matched with an increase
in human resources in order for the counting process to be accurate and fast. However,
in light of the current circumstances including the political division and fragile
economic situation it has not been easy for local organizations to provide very accurate
data. The counting process continued to be traditional in the sense of collecting data
through social affairs offices and Crisis Committees in each city, or by the municipal
council in most municipalities. Most international organizations in that period relied on
the data provided by local organizations in preparing plans for interventions and reports
on the humanitarian situation in Libya. The data released by local organizations always
lack details. Updates on the number of displaced people in terms of increase or reduction
were only carried out in the event of relief distribution. This failure in maintaining up-
to-date and accurate data urged the International Organization for Migration to echo the
matrix experience of displaced persons used in several countries which suffered natural
6 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
disasters or wars such as Iraq and Haiti to Libya at the end of 2015. This matrix was
replicated to be an accurate source of information and provide alternatives for
international and local organizations when needed to distribute aids or provide
psychological and financial support for the displaced.
The Reasons for Counting Displaced people :
The main reason for counting displaced people is to provide an open data source which
include the areas where the displaced are resettled, their age groups, gender, places of
origin and their most important needs. These data provide an essential base on which
local and international organization rely to develop intervention plans, identify the
displaced persons' priorities, as well as learn about the main displacement reasons in
order to study them and find ways to prevent them in the future .
Providing accurate information on displaced persons including their numbers, place of
resettlement and evidence that would facilitate reaching them, for example by using
Google maps, would significantly speed up the process of providing them with
assistance in a smooth manner that would sometimes spare international organizations
the trouble of finding a local mediator. In the meantime, these accurate data would
contribute to reducing the time of intervention in the event of crises. Differences in data
about the number of displaced people and the lack of reliable and accurate sources lead
to significant delays in providing aid and in some cases, its suspension. Most
international organizations assume great responsibilities towards donors, because they
have to provide detailed reports on the disbursement of granted funds in a particular
period of time. When reports on how the funds were spent are convincing, donors would
continue providing aids to international organizations, which in turn cooperate with
local partners who implement the developed plans and projects; while international
organizations play the role of censor on them because of the deteriorating security
conditions which prevent most International organizations from working in Libya. This
7 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
obstacle urged these organizations to relocate their offices in Tunisia in the summer of
2014 .
The prompt response depends on the total amount of collected data. The more detailed
the data, the better the quality of aids provided. Detailed data also help identifying the
demanded priorities for displaced persons.
The failure to conduct a census of displaced persons has dire consequences. First,
foreign organizations could halt, or in most cases, delay aids they provide to them.
Second, the falsification and manipulation of numbers of displaced by inflating the
numbers in certain areas, and reducing them in others for political or material interest,
and not for public interest. These practices result in a failure to develop appropriate
plans to provide urgent assistance to displaced persons. For these reasons, international
organizations only rely on these data after checking their accuracy through their local
partners to prevent any violations that might occur as a result of false numbers.
The Process of Counting Displaced Persons :
The sixth displacement tracking matrix report released by the International Organization
for Migration (IOM) states that the number of displaced persons in Libya reached 313
thousand persons, according to a census conducted in 100 municipalities out of 104
accredited by the Ministry of Local Government. Currently, the largest number of
displaced persons are coming from the cities of "Benghazi" and "Sirte."
Data is collected by a group of field researchers working in all Libyan cities. The
number of researchers varies depending on the size and population of each municipality.
The main mission of the researcher is collecting data about the displaced persons and
their numbers from more than one source in order to compare the figures and select the
numbers closest to reality .
The counting process of displaced persons in its first phases relied only on collecting
the numbers of people, their places of settlement, and whether they moved towards
8 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
another municipality or they decided to move to other areas which are safer within the
same municipality. However, workers at the matrix project were obliged, at an advanced
stage in the project, to expand the questionnaire and incorporate the personal needs of
displaced persons and ways to improve their housing environment. The matrix project
also tracks the movement of displaced persons from one city to another which is a quite
complex process that is carried out to know about the preferred displacement directions
for each town's residents .
Establishing a tracking process will contribute to knowing the future options for any
displacement that may occur. For example, if we know that most of the people who left
"Sirte" went to "Tripoli" and specifically to the municipality of "Abu Salim", this would
help improve the speed of future intervention process in case another displacement
movement takes place in "Sirte ."
The total number of displaced people who returned to their home cities where the
conditions had improved reached 463 thousand persons. This number is supposed to
increase in the seventh round of the matrix that will be released at the beginning of the
new year after the improvement of conditions in "Sirte" and "Benghazi". Making a
simple comparison between the first and sixth round of matrix we find that the number
of displaced people, as well as those who returned to their homes, have increased. In
fact, in the first round, the number of displaced persons in Libya reached 296 thousand
while the number of returnees reached 130 thousand. This sharp increase in numbers is
a result of the emergence of new hotbeds of conflict in addition to the already
smoldering hotbeds. As for the stable areas, the municipalities of "Benghazi",
"Ajdabya" and "Abu Salim" are considered the largest hosts of displaced people in
Libya.
The matrix divides displaced persons into male and female, and each gender has four
age groups. It focuses on the special needs of displaced persons and returnees in the
various areas of their settlement, whether homes or public places such as schools, large
9 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
warehouses and complexes to which refugees resort. Their main needs are food, drink,
safety, hygienic items, and sanitation and health services. Moreover, the matrix also
includes information on where the displaced people are living and whether they are
renting a place themselves or there is another party paying the rent, such as a relative or
others hosting them. As for the displaced persons who returned to their home towns,
they are also subject to the same questions in addition to another question about the
place of settlement when they returned to their home region and whether it is their
former house or a new place so that to conclude whether the former house was destroyed
as a result of the war. The areas of "Ezzahra", "Al-Mayah" and "Benghazi" are the
largest areas to which displaced persons returned to in the last two years.
Each data matrix is based on the work of local organizations, crises and social affairs
committees in municipalities which themselves suffer an acute shortage in human and
financial resources and hence, unable to conduct larger and more accurate census. Local
organizations encounter a big obstacle that is the lack of cooperation of displaced
persons during the counting process due to the repeated requests about the number of
displaced persons, while this process does not end up with providing assistance to them.
This is due to the failure of the various governments in disbursing the funds to crises
committees in the purpose of providing displaced persons with their needs. In fact, last
year the International Food Organization alone distributed 210 thousand food rations in
Libya that is worth a total of $25.5 million, besides other assistance provided by foreign
organizations in Libya. In light of the clear absence of government role, local
organizations resort to working with the international community. Most of the large
local organizations working in the field of relief and assistance to refugees are supported
by international organizations. The latter oversee the process of distribution, delivery
and counting.
The successive governments were clearly absent from the scene of displaced Libyans
causing a loss of trust between the displaced and government. Without the firm laws,
municipalities enacted to count displaced people through crisis committees, the State
10 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
would not be able to find any local source to learn about the numbers of displaced
persons. Despite that, the counting processes within the scope of work of municipalities
are very weak and lack accuracy because they often rely on a sole source of information.
Most municipalities did not conduct a clear field survey to determine the exact number
of displaced persons in each municipality, besides the absence of a unified system that
work at a national level to link all internal systems in each municipality so that it could
benefit all relevant parties. In reality, in order to know the number of displaced persons,
one has to visit each municipality to verify data as they differ from the data provided by
social affairs, crisis committees, “Zakat fund”, and others entities concerned with
counting displaced persons in Libya. When identifying the number of displaced people,
international organizations provide financial support and human resources. Along with
their continuous support for the displaced, international organizations efforts have
significantly contributed to a better cooperation of all relevant parties with them.
Despite all these features, international organizations have not conducted a complete
field survey until now, which is normal as the cost of field survey is very high. All these
circumstances have led to the lack of a unified counting system accessed by all local
and international organizations as well as government to be the main source for
determining the number of displaced persons and their complete data. Such a system
requires large funding and human resources trained to manage this system which is not
available in these current circumstances.
Challenges Facing the Process of Counting Displaced Persons:
The success of any work is reliant on certain factors. This also applies to the counting
process of displaced persons. In this context, a set of factors are responsible for
obtaining accurate data which we would benefit from in diagnosing the displacement
movement in Libya as well as the needs of displaced persons. In fact, Libya is a very
big sprawling country so in order to ensure the success of the counting process, the
government has to ensure the freedom of movement for the team working inside the
11 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
country as well as their safety. However, Libya is currently suffering from the lack of
security and spread of crimes as well as a rickety infrastructure, absence of roads and
means of public transportation, and poor technology capabilities. All these factors
contributed to hindering the repeated counting processes and the training of human
resources to contribute to field research. In order to have successful projects we
sometimes substitute intensive training of all the staff and with a simplified training that
is conducted via phone or social media. Sometimes, this could lead to less accurate
results. In addition to the repeated power outage in the south and sometimes for long
periods of time during the summer that reach few successive days. These conditions
affect the process of data collection and exchange between the various working teams.
Moreover, the repeated cuts in communication and the low internet speed are among the
main factors contributing also to hindering the counting process. Furthermore, the
presence of armed militias in the areas of regional or ethnic conflicts is the main problem
encountering researchers during the data collection. In fact, researchers might be
prevented from conducting statistics about certain ethnicities or they might be forced to
inflate the numbers of displaced persons for either political interest or to benefit from
the available aids based on those inflated numbers. Unfortunately, inflating and
falsifying numbers is not limited to the militias only, but also some government bodies
or local organizations documented fake and inflated users. This problem could easily be
revealed if there would be more than one source of information in a certain area.
These disgraceful practices of local organizations affect their image and lead to
dysfunctional relationships between them and donors to the detriment of displaced
people in the first place. The Libyan government has indirectly contributed to the
inflation of displaced persons numbers, because most organizations which get involved
in such practices aim at to increase their share of food and non-food aid and its
distribution to needy families in their areas. These needy families are the government
priority that is why we will shed the light on the suffering of hosting communities
resulting from the displacement crisis .
12 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
Most communities in Libya are suffering from the negative effects of the very fragile
economic situation including the lack of liquidity, increase of primary commodity
prices, and daily life high cost for middle-income families. The burden is increasing on
citizens living in a host community due to the high cost of living and rent. This could
be one of the obstacles encountering the counting process of displaced persons. In fact,
the lack of cooperation of hosting communities with the research team might hinder any
counting process. However, no counting process can be conducted without the
cooperation of the hosting community and local organizations .
Strategies and Solutions to Facilitate the Counting Process of Displaced
Persons:
In order to conduct a successful counting process for internally displaced persons in
Libya, the government should have the will to make this work successful. We cannot
hold international organizations and their local partners responsible for the success of
the whole process. The adoption of a counting process by the government and
considering it a strategic project will definitely lead to the success of this operation as a
whole. The joint cooperation between local government institutions and international
organizations will result in concrete data of high accuracy and professionalism .
Without concerted efforts we will not obtain satisfactory results. Individual work has
not resulted until now in complete and accurate data. We will never have full
cooperation of displaced persons as long we do not ensure the protection of their
personal data and not handing it to any other party whatsoever unless for the benefit of
displaced persons and following a sovereign decision only. Additionally, the repeated
collection of data, as the case now in the counting processes in Libya, will bring about
a sluggish relationship between the displaced and the researchers and thus a lack of
cooperation in providing data on a regular basis. Therefore, all the relevant
organizations and governments in Libya have to:
13 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
Examine the overall situation of displaced persons and respond to all their needs.
Focus on creating a national database that links the displaced persons with their area
of settlement as well as monitor their movements from one place to another.
The need for all displaced persons to cooperate with all the organizations working on
collecting their data in the aim of providing assistance to them.
Displaced persons have to be responsible towards these organizations and report on
their departure to other area or in case of changes in their social situation .
In fact, the counting process is a joint responsibility between several parties working for
a sole objective that is providing assistance and support to the internally displaced
people and facilitating their everyday lives until granted relief, and the hope of a sound
and safe return to their home towns.
14 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
References:
1. http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/internal/documents/projects/wfp280663.p
df?_ga=1.19253562.308600152.1483181801
2. https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/system/files/documents/files/sirt_flash_ap
peal_16sept_v3_ar.pdf
3. http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/DTM%20Libya%20Round%
206%20Mobility%20Tracking%20Report%20-%20September%202016.pdf
4. http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Libya_HNO_Final_Arabic.pd
f
5. http://www.unhcr.org/ar/55f1710f6.pdf
6. http://www.globaldtm.info/libya/
7. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_3VYzW3ndOTaUlsSmFRSVdCN3M
15 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
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16 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
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17 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies
About LOOPS
The Libyan Organization Of Policies & Strategies (LOOPS) is an independent, nonprofit and
nongovernmental institution founded in December 2014 in Tripoli, Libya. A representative branch
was founded in Istanbul in January 2015.
The organization carries out research and studies related to emerging policy and strategy issues with
the aim of generating effective and successful policies and providing support to decision-makers.
The organization devotes its efforts to improving the performance of Libyan institutions and
advancing the economic and social welfare of the Libyan people. It seeks to spread the notions and
concepts of quality, good governance, strategic planning and a culture of excellence so as to
improve the performance of Libyan institutions.
LOOPS aspires to promote and spread knowledge about public policies and strategies to the state
through the dissemination of statistics, studies and periodic reports. It also organizes conferences,
workshops and forums as platforms for discussion, the exchange of opinions and spreading
knowledge.
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