Refugee Camp Simulation @ IE University
Felipa R. E.
Undergraduate Student of Comparative Law in the scope of national and international law. Simultaneously, pursuing an Undergraduate Degree in International Relations, both @IEUniverstity
22/09/22 was the day the IE School of Politics, Economics & Global Affairs introduced to all BIR undergraduate first-year students a role-play simulation of how to respond to a large flux of refugees. The pictures depict the different aids the NGOs and other helping refugee organisations provide in camps.
First, we BIR students were required to analyse the specific human needs that refugee camps should provide. Onwards, we were confronted with the struggles of maintenance a refugee camp needs to sustain. Professionals with background knowledge from La Cooperativa Humanitaria, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC, United Nations , and a former refugee brought the topic closer to us. Ultimately, we planned out a strategy on how to structure a refugee camp most logically and continued to build this refugee camp on our university grounds.
We acquired an in-depth knowledge of arguments regarding granting and restricting refugees' freedom of movement plus civil and economic rights. The presentation of aid workers and the first-hand storytelling of a former refugee camp inhabitant enhanced the experience. This content-oriented simulation taught us public policy in combination with humanitarian and development responses in the wake of a large influx of forced migrants in a country.?