Choucha is a

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary Human settlement, settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for in ...

in the south of

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

, in the Medinine Governorate. The camp is located within 10 kilometers of the border crossing Ras Ajdir with

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

. The camp was opened on the 24th of February, 2011 and run by the

UNHCR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and Humanitarian protection, protect refugees, Internally displaced person, forcibly displaced communities, and Statelessness, s ...

, other

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

and the Tunisian authorities. Choucha camp hosted mainly

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

who fled the conflict in

. The UNHCR officially closed the camp in 2013.

Background

In December 2010, the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia started. This event sparked several uprisings in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

, also known as the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...

. In February 2011 the

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

started in Libya as well, leading to a

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

in the country that is still ongoing. This created an influx of refugees from Libya into neighboring Tunisia. In response to this influx, the Tunisian authorities together with the UNHCR and other organisations opened seven refugee camps in the border region near Choucha. Choucha camp would become the biggest of these seven. The UNCHR states that the camp welcomed up to 18.000 people a day when the conflict in Libya escalated.

Actors in camp

Residents

The residents in Choucha refugee camp fled from the ongoing violence in Libya. Most of them were third-country nationals that were working in Libya when the war started. Libyans that fled the war quickly found hosting families or other housing, therefore their presence in the refugee camp is minimal. The registration of refugees in the camp was done by the UNHCR. The organisation started the registration on the 8th of March, 2011. After the 29th of March, the number of inhabitants of all camps surrounding Choucha were counted together so that there are no exact numbers of the camp. From the opening of Choucha, most inhabitants were

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( ) are the citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centred on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the Bay of Bengal, eponymous bay. Bangladeshi nationality law, Bangladeshi citizenship was fo ...

migrants who used to work in Libya. Most of them were repatriated to

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

within the month of March through the Humanitarian Evacuation Cell (HEC) that was set up by the IOM and

. From April 2011 on, the Choucha camp population would consist for the biggest part of

sub-Saharan African Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

nationals. Gradually, they would leave the camp either to go further into Tunisia or to leave for

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. When the camp closed down in July 2013, the UNHCR reported that there were around 250 people left, to whom the Tunisian government offered

temporary residence Temporary Residence Limited (shortened TRL) is a Brooklyn, New York–based record label. TRL was started in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1996 by Jeremy DeVine, and initially concentrated on releasing music by Louisville-based bands.

NGOs

Several

were present in Choucha and the surrounding refugee camps. *

Danish Refugee Council Danish Refugee Council (DRC) () is a private Danish humanitarian nonprofit organization, founded in 1956. It serves as an umbrella organization for 33 member organizations. Formed after the Second World War in response to the European refugee c ...

Doctors without Borders Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to: Titles and occupations * Physician, a medical practitioner * Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree ** Doctorate ** List of doctoral degrees awarded ...

IFRC The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is a worldwide humanitarian aid organization that reaches 160 million people each year through its 191 member National Societies. It acts before, during and after disast ...

Tunisian Red Crescent The Tunisian Red Crescent (Arabic: الهلال الأحمر التونسي) is a Tunisian humanitarian association founded in 1956, after the independence of the country. It is one of the national affiliates of the International Movement of the Re ...

International Medical Corps International Medical Corps is a global, nonprofit, humanitarian aid organization that provides emergency medical services, healthcare training and capacity building to those affected by disaster, disease or conflict. It seeks to strengthen med ...

* International Relief Development *

Islamic Relief Islamic Relief Worldwide is an international NGO founded in the United Kingdom in 1984. It has international headquarters in Birmingham and a network of national offices, affiliated partners, registered branches and country offices spread over ...

* IOM *

Médecins du Monde ''Médecins du monde'' (MdM; ), or Doctors of the World, is an international humanitarian organization which seeks to provide emergency and long-term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. It also advocates for an end to health ine ...

* Safe the Children *

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

WHO The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 6 regional offices and 15 ...

The

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

as a country also supported and managed one of the camps near Choucha.

Humanitarian situation

Medical situation

The quick influx of refugees from February 2011 on made the

hygienic Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

situation in Choucha difficult. The first weeks there were no showers and few water points. As more and more NGOs arrived in the refugee camp, more needs were met. The UNHCR started heading a Sanitary Alert system that held daily meetings with other NGOs, the Tunisian ministry of Health and EU-representatives to prevent epidemics. A lot of people who were migrant workers in Libya did not receive any

health care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

before the civil war in Libya started. So the consumption of health care was higher than in most refugee camps. The health care in Choucha consisted of the following: From March 16, 2011 the Tunisian Ministry of Health together with the

started vaccination campaigns in Choucha. MSF started offering mental health services in the camp.

and

were available for children's health care. UNICEF started a vaccination campaign for children under 5 years old. From October 2012 the

stopped providing medical care for people who were denied refugee status, but who remained in the camp.

Legal situation

there is no legal framework to ask for asylum. Therefore, residents of Choucha refugee camp could only be acknowledged by asking for international protection with the

. In asking for international protection, residents of the camp would agree with a resettlement program to a safe third country. There have been several European countries who were willing to host the residents of the camp who were granted international protection. However, there have been few actual resettlements. Moreover, there has been criticism of the inability for residents of Choucha to do an appeal when the UNHCR does not grant international protection.

Incidents

There have been several incidents reported. In May 2011 and March 2012 there were fires in the camp that caused several fatalities and injured. In May 2011, several migrants demanded to be resettled immediately by the UNHCR after a big fire and this caused a lot of unrest, also with the local population. The situation turned violent and in the following days Choucha camp was destroyed for the biggest part.

Current situation

Sub-Saharan migrants

The camp was officially closed in June 2013 by the UNHCR. However, several hundreds of migrants - mostly from

Sub-Saharan African Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

countries - stayed in the camp. Some organisations, like MSF, stayed in the surroundings of the camp to help the inhabitants of Choucha with food and health care, since there was no water or electricity in the camp. In June 2017, four years after the camp was officially closed, Tunisian authorities evicted the remaining inhabitants of Choucha. The sudden eviction was condemned by several organizations and NGOs, because of alleged violations of human rights.

References

{{reflist Refugee camps in Tunisia Populated places in Medenine Governorate Libyan civil war (2011) 2011 establishments in Tunisia Libya–Tunisia relations