After the devastating news of the deadly shipwreck near Greece and the recent end of Title 42 exacerbating the human crisis at the US-Mexico border, World Refugee Day today seems more important than ever. This year’s theme focuses on hope. At our scale, we try to bring hope to refugees in our missions, whether it’s through connectivity or information. With testimonies from a researcher, TSF staff and refugees themselves, read this week’s focus on World Refugee Day.
World Refugee Day: inclusion and hope
Each year on 20 June, World Refugee Day celebrates the resilience and courage of refugees who have been forced to flee their homes. This year’s theme is “hope away from home”, to focus on the “power of inclusion and solutions for refugees”. How can technology offer solutions to include refugees more and give them hope?
Reconnecting with your loved ones and with the world
Some refugees are on the move, finding shelter when they can. Others are waiting in camps for their applications to be processed. Many refugee camps are “geographically located in remote regions, typically close to borders”, Dr. Maitland, who researches information technology use in organizations providing humanitarian assistance, told us. This means that “sometimes the connectivity that is available is limited”, a “challenge” for both humanitarian organizations and refugees themselves.
Connectivity can help include refugees, reconnect them with their loved ones and with the rest of the world, and open new opportunities.
"I use the internet to look for work, and to know what is going on in the world.”
An anonymous refugee in the Lipa refugee camp, Bosnia, 2021.
Through access to the Internet, refugees can find hope in their loved ones' support, in possible opportunities, and in information. However, information on the Internet is not always reliable.
Fighting online misinformation
“I think it is important that aid agencies, host communities and host governments understand the potential negative impacts that misinformation, disseminated through information and communication technologies, can cause”, Dr. Maitland said.
Displaced people are very susceptible to rumors because they lack normal social networks to validate the information. Without your friends and family around you, “how do you validate information that you see online”?
This is why reliable information is especially important for refugees. This is an aspect highlighted in a recent interview with TSF staff member Abril. Abril works in Mexico in the Information Diffusion project which relies on remote-controlled connected screens displaying reliable information for people in displacement. She explained: “We’re trying to give [displaced people] information that they’re not necessarily going to find on social media, which is where they spend most of the time, but that can have the biggest positive impact in their lives as possible.”
“I feel a bit more prepared after reading the information.”
Anonymous Hondurian man, 34, in a shelter in Tijuana, Mexico.
