‘Breaking and Creating Boundaries in the Middle East’

Chairs: Are John Knudsen & Sarah Tobin (Chr. Michelsen Institute)

 An increasing number of refugees live in poor neighbourhoods in towns and cities across the Middle East, a premier refugee region with one of the world’s highest urbanization levels. While host states have taken in millions of refugees, they do not have the resources or capacity to provide for them. Aiding refugees living in cities and urban areas is therefore a major challenge to humanitarian policy. While the size and complexity of cities account for many of the problems facing refuges, they are also part of the solution. Cities have larger and often unregulated labour markets, more shelter options and ready access to health and school facilities. Cities and towns can also offer greater freedom of movement and better prospects for successful socio-economic integration and entrepreneurship. Using examples from urban displaced in Lebanon (Beirut, Tripoli), Palestine (East Jerusalem) and Jordan (Marfraq, Irbid) this panel asks whether humanitarian policies be re-designed to accommodate refugees in urban areas and, indeed, if refugees can find “sanctuary in the city”?