CAIRO: “You are governor of a refugee hosting province. The province has received refugees from different neighboring countries for a long time. About 10 years ago there was a large scale influx that coincided with an economic crisis in your country and a drought further inland, read the first paragraph of an assignment given to the students of the Refugee Camps and Warehousing short course.
The course is part of the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program (FMRS) at the American University in Cairo (AUC). The students were faced with the task of finding a solution to the dilemma facing the governor of the province in question, whose problems extended far beyond sheltering refugees.
According to the assignment, the governor has to deal with the discontent growing among the locals in response to the special treatment the refugees are receiving during a time of dire economic conditions; the different international NGO’s working in his province; international donors who oppose warehousing; the worsening economic conditions facing the country and reports of rape and abuse against women within the camps.
In order for students to recap what they learnt in the week-long course, they were required to identify the governor’s goals in the next three years; the obstacles he is expected to face in achieving his goals and how to overcome them; what to do if refugee influx increased and their own speculations of the evolvement of the refugee situation described.
Thus the students would be able to assess the situation from all points of view and recognize all of the influencing elements in similar, real-life dilemmas. Other courses vary from covering specific regional issues or other topics affecting or affected by forced migration.
The short courses are offered in the summer – in January and in March. They are open for the public for a fee of LE 200 for residents and $100 for non-resident international students; fees are sometimes waived for refugees. The FMRS program also offers a diploma in the field, which usually takes a year to finish and costs as much as any three-month course at the university, and weekly free-admission seminars.
“[FMRS] at AUC is a multi faceted program that combines the taught diploma with dynamic research opportunities, unique outreach and service activities for refugee communities and ongoing networking and collaboration with academic institutions and organizations that work with those communities, locally, regionally and internationally, reads the FMRC official website.
FMRS began about six years ago as a response to a need to study refugee related issues within the regions, especially given that Egypt has witnessed influxes of refugees in its recent history. According to program director Fateh Azzam, there were no universities that offered a program on forced migration in the region; AUC was the first.
“The phenomenon of forced migration continues to challenge global society on the levels of international politics, law and human rights, social and population policies and humanitarian short and long-term responses, reads website.
“Egypt, sitting at the nexus of three continents, is a major center and transit country for tens of thousands of refugees and forced migrants, it continued. “Thus, [AUC] is perfectly suited for the study of this phenomenon and provides proximity to refugee communities within the country and in the Middle East and Africa as a whole.
Azzam, who is also an instructor at the program, said he witnessed an increase in the number of those interested in refugee studies after what occured to the Sudanese refugees in Cairo last December – a three-month sit-in of a few thousands refugees was put to an end by Egyptian security forces, leaving over 25 dead.
However, such interest has not translated into an increase of the number of applicants, as the deadline for submitting an application for the January courses had elapsed before the Sudanese problem caught the public’s eye, according to Azzam.
According to Azzam, the students are a combination of those interested in the academic side and those who are interested in working in the field, either with NGO’s or with governments. In fact, the official website of the program lists a number of the graduates who are now working with organizations such as the UN or Amnesty International, or are still pursuing further studies in related fields in prestigious universities around the world.
Mayson Ibrahim, one of the students attending the Refugee Camps and Warehousing course, already works with SPTR and is a volunteer at UNICEF. Originally from Darfur, Ibrahim studies at the Sudanese University for Science and technology. Out of her interest in humanitarian work, Ibrahim came to Cairo to learn more about the refugee situation.
She stressed the importance of having training courses available for the general public and for the refugees, saying that that refugees need to know about their rights and obligations, which most of them are unaware of.
Azzam said that the short courses and the seminars are designed to reach out to the community with special attention paid toward refugees. According to Etab Saad, administrative assistant and financial officer at FMRS, a considerable number of the students of the short courses are refugees.
The Wednesday-evening seminars, which are held on a weekly basis during AUC’s working semesters, are also designed to enhance the understanding of refugee-related issues within the members of the community. Although the language of instruction at these seminars stand as a barrier in reaching all members of the community, Azzam explained that the programs have made noticeable progress within AUC and the English-speaking community in the country. The seminars had already attracted 50 to 60 regulars, Azzam said.
In order to cross this barrier, FMRS had organized one short course in Arabic, and according to Azzam, the experience will be repeated.
