Reference :
V-P-KE-E-00284
Date :
03/11/2013
Caption :
Northern Kenya, Kakuma refugee camp. ICRC officials hold a meeting with Kenyan Red Cross volunteers to discuss issues related to the tracing programme.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
08-11-2013 Photo gallery
Kakuma refugee camp is located in the Turkana District of north-western Kenya, 120 kilometres from Lodwar City and 95 kilometres from Lokichogio, near the South Sudan border.
The Kenyan Red Cross, in partnership with the ICRC, continues to carry out tracing activities to restore family links at Kakuma refugee camp. Refugees who live there use a free mobile phone service to contact relatives and keep in touch with them. There are more than 120,000 people from different nationalities living in the camp.
Although most of the refugees living in the camp come from Somalia and South Sudan, there are many others who have fled from Ethiopia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Uganda, and Rwanda, among others. Today, the camp population stands at over 124,000 refugees, for a theoretical capacity of 50,000. It was originally established in 1992 to serve Sudanese refugees.
Every day, Kenya Red Cross volunteers facilitate around 400 people to call their relatives in different parts of Africa and beyond in order to keep family ties. More than twenty Kenya Red Cross volunteers help refugees in the camp to restore the links with their families through mobile phone calls.
Putting people back in touch with their loved ones is a major challenge for the ICRC and the Kenya Red Cross. The work includes locating people, exchanging messages, reuniting families and seeking to clarify the fate of those who remain missing.
Every year, thousands of family members are separated by conflicts, natural disasters and migration. People suffer terribly when they lose contact with their loved ones and don’t know where they are or whether they are safe. Under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, families who are separated by conflicts, other situations of violence and natural disasters have the right to know what has happened to their relatives.
Original material :
digital
Resolution :
4000x2248
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
colour
