Counting the Internally Displaced Persons Reality...

1 Counting the Internally Displaced Persons. Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies

Counting the Internally Displaced Persons

Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies

Moad Abu Zamazim

This paper was presented at a Conference Titled:

"Displaced people in Libya ... Challenges and Solutions"

January 4, 2017

Tripoli, Libya


Counting the Internally Displaced Persons

Reality, Challenges and Future Strategies

Moad Abu Zamazim

Introduction :

The issue of internal displacement in Libya is considered to be a big dilemma that

contributes to the complexity of the internal situation and disturbs civil peace in the long

and short term. The escalation of displacement movement in Libya during the past years

caused problems that further exacerbated the crisis and leading to it spread widely in

Libyan society.

This research paper tackles the process of counting displaced persons in Libya in the

past years and addresses the ways to improve it in order to obtain more accurate figures

on the numbers of internally displaced persons.

Preface:

Following the February revolution's events, armed clashes erupted in many areas in

Libya leading to the displacement of people from their homes. The first movement of

displacement was from "Nafousa" Mountains area towards Tunisian borders in "Wazin"

and "Dhehiba". After which came the displacement of some civilians from "Misrata"

towards "Benghazi" using bulldozers and from "Benghazi" towards eastern towns. This

situation prevailed for a short period of time during the revolution and came to end when

the combat operations stopped in these cities. From then, the second phase of

displacement started when rebel forces started attacking certain areas. After the

withdrawal of the old administration, or rather its defeat in those areas, people began to

gradually move to other farther areas that support the old administration seeking shelter


and safety and fearing revenge. Consequently, most displaced towns are neighboring

other rebel towns that suffered siege and killing for long periods of time. As soon as the

regime collapsed, displacement movements broke out, one city after another. People

decided to leave their homes before the arrival of rebel forces, such was the case in

"Tawergha", "Al-Awina", "Zawiya", "Al-Bakour", "El-Gawalesh" and western

"Riyayna". After the withdraw of the previous administration’s forces, these areas were

completely abandoned. Since the end of the revolution and until 2014, "Tripoli" and

"Benghazi" have turned into the largest hosts of displaced people coming from all

Libyan regions. Until 2014, the mass displacement in Libya had been limited to

supporters of the previous administration and most of individual displacement cases

were due to the personal affiliations of these individuals. The absence of security, and

not holding officials who committed crimes responsible prior and during the revolution

led to a state of chaos and attempts to take the law into one's own hand, along with the

widespread of the idea of revenge among Libyans. All these violations led to the spread

of displacement among wealthy people, who support the previous administration, to

Tunisia and Egypt. The internal displacement was limited in most cases to those who

cannot afford it to live outside Libya. Given the overall situation, the lack of security

and protection for refugees in their communities and camps encourages the migration

to outside Libya. We make mention here of the attacks that targeted the refugees' camp

in "Tawergha" and of violations and recurrent random killings in the past five years.

Given the limited number of displaced people between the years 2011 and 2014, the

counting process was fairly easy. Following the establishment of a first Social Affairs

Ministry, other affiliated offices were created in most cities in Libya. Among the main

functions of these offices is counting displaced persons within the scope of each

municipality. The counting is conducted when the displaced present themselves for

registration. Social affairs offices are collecting data including the number of family

members, where they came from and where they are settled. This might be the most

common method for counting displaced people among government offices. This method


is primarily based on the initiative of displaced persons to register themselves in these

offices. However, given that there are no motivations to do so, there are a significant

number of families which miss the registration. On another aspect, some use the security

condition and the secrecy of information as an excuse to keep the data and not sharing

the names with other relevant bodies. To overcome these difficulties and obstacles in

monitoring most displaced people and their accurate number, social affairs offices

decided to commit themselves, public institutions, and local and international charitable

organizations not to distribute any aids to unregistered families and individuals in an

attempt to urge them to register themselves in these offices.

The data provided by social affairs offices and other civil society organizations, which

are involved in the field of displaced persons, are the main source of information for

international organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration. The number of displaced

people in the period between the end of 2011 and mid-2014 reached 70,000 persons.

Since mid-2014 and after the launch of Operation Dignity in "Benghazi" and then the

launch of Operation Dawn in "Tripoli", clashes widened to include several cities in the

west, east and south of Libya. Due to the widespread of clashes, the number of displaced

people increased by four times to reach a historical level, in mid-2015, of nearly 450

thousand displaced persons in total, spread over various areas in Libya. This sharp

increase in displaced persons numbers will seem normal when learning about the series

of events during that period, which are :

Fighting in "Benghazi" in several overcrowded neighborhoods such as "Al-Sabri",

and "Souk Al-Hout "

The Battle of Tripoli Airport that led to the displacement of most areas neighbouring

the airport.

The conflict in "Al-Kufra."

The war that lasted for one and half years in "Ubari".


When the Battle of Tripoli Airport and conflict in Tripoli came to end, conflicts were

transferred to the region of "Wershafana" where severe clashes led to the displacement

of most residents of this wide region. Meanwhile, there were clashes extending along

the coastal cities from "Zawiya" to "Zwara" as well as in the regions down "Nafousa"

Mountain between forced of Operation Dawn and forces associated with Operation

Dignity in the western region. Subsequently came the war in "Kikla" and the

displacement of all its residents, and finally the war in "Sirte" which led to the biggest

waves of displacement in Libya as of now.

The points addressed above are the main reasons which led to a significant increase of

displacement movements. We note that the chronology of events did neither positively

contribute to solving the crisis of displaced people, nor minimized the existing figures.

As soon as a war stops or a treaty is signed, displaced people rush to return to their home

regions, while another war that is worse than the previous ones ignites somewhere else.

The expansion of clashes and fighting in the last two years have increased the burden

on all local and international organizations working in the field of counting displaced

people. The increase in numbers of displaced persons has to be matched with an increase

in human resources in order for the counting process to be accurate and fast. However,

in light of the current circumstances including the political division and fragile

economic situation it has not been easy for local organizations to provide very accurate

data. The counting process continued to be traditional in the sense of collecting data

through social affairs offices and Crisis Committees in each city, or by the municipal

council in most municipalities. Most international organizations in that period relied on

the data provided by local organizations in preparing plans for interventions and reports

on the humanitarian situation in Libya. The data released by local organizations always

lack details. Updates on the number of displaced people in terms of increase or reduction

were only carried out in the event of relief distribution. This failure in maintaining up-

to-date and accurate data urged the International Organization for Migration to echo the

matrix experience of displaced persons used in several countries which suffered natural


disasters or wars such as Iraq and Haiti to Libya at the end of 2015. This matrix was

replicated to be an accurate source of information and provide alternatives for

international and local organizations when needed to distribute aids or provide

psychological and financial support for the displaced.

The Reasons for Counting Displaced people :

The main reason for counting displaced people is to provide an open data source which

include the areas where the displaced are resettled, their age groups, gender, places of

origin and their most important needs. These data provide an essential base on which

local and international organization rely to develop intervention plans, identify the

displaced persons' priorities, as well as learn about the main displacement reasons in

order to study them and find ways to prevent them in the future .

Providing accurate information on displaced persons including their numbers, place of

resettlement and evidence that would facilitate reaching them, for example by using

Google maps, would significantly speed up the process of providing them with

assistance in a smooth manner that would sometimes spare international organizations

the trouble of finding a local mediator. In the meantime, these accurate data would

contribute to reducing the time of intervention in the event of crises. Differences in data

about the number of displaced people and the lack of reliable and accurate sources lead

to significant delays in providing aid and in some cases, its suspension. Most

international organizations assume great responsibilities towards donors, because they

have to provide detailed reports on the disbursement of granted funds in a particular

period of time. When reports on how the funds were spent are convincing, donors would

continue providing aids to international organizations, which in turn cooperate with

local partners who implement the developed plans and projects; while international

organizations play the role of censor on them because of the deteriorating security

conditions which prevent most International organizations from working in Libya. This


obstacle urged these organizations to relocate their offices in Tunisia in the summer of

2014 .

The prompt response depends on the total amount of collected data. The more detailed

the data, the better the quality of aids provided. Detailed data also help identifying the

demanded priorities for displaced persons.

The failure to conduct a census of displaced persons has dire consequences. First,

foreign organizations could halt, or in most cases, delay aids they provide to them.

Second, the falsification and manipulation of numbers of displaced by inflating the

numbers in certain areas, and reducing them in others for political or material interest,

and not for public interest. These practices result in a failure to develop appropriate

plans to provide urgent assistance to displaced persons. For these reasons, international

organizations only rely on these data after checking their accuracy through their local

partners to prevent any violations that might occur as a result of false numbers.

The Process of Counting Displaced Persons :

The sixth displacement tracking matrix report released by the International Organization

for Migration (IOM) states that the number of displaced persons in Libya reached 313

thousand persons, according to a census conducted in 100 municipalities out of 104

accredited by the Ministry of Local Government. Currently, the largest number of

displaced persons are coming from the cities of "Benghazi" and "Sirte."

Data is collected by a group of field researchers working in all Libyan cities. The

number of researchers varies depending on the size and population of each municipality.

The main mission of the researcher is collecting data about the displaced persons and

their numbers from more than one source in order to compare the figures and select the

numbers closest to reality .

The counting process of displaced persons in its first phases relied only on collecting

the numbers of people, their places of settlement, and whether they moved towards


another municipality or they decided to move to other areas which are safer within the

same municipality. However, workers at the matrix project were obliged, at an advanced

stage in the project, to expand the questionnaire and incorporate the personal needs of

displaced persons and ways to improve their housing environment. The matrix project

also tracks the movement of displaced persons from one city to another which is a quite

complex process that is carried out to know about the preferred displacement directions

for each town's residents .

Establishing a tracking process will contribute to knowing the future options for any

displacement that may occur. For example, if we know that most of the people who left

"Sirte" went to "Tripoli" and specifically to the municipality of "Abu Salim", this would

help improve the speed of future intervention process in case another displacement

movement takes place in "Sirte ."

The total number of displaced people who returned to their home cities where the

conditions had improved reached 463 thousand persons. This number is supposed to

increase in the seventh round of the matrix that will be released at the beginning of the

new year after the improvement of conditions in "Sirte" and "Benghazi". Making a

simple comparison between the first and sixth round of matrix we find that the number

of displaced people, as well as those who returned to their homes, have increased. In

fact, in the first round, the number of displaced persons in Libya reached 296 thousand

while the number of returnees reached 130 thousand. This sharp increase in numbers is

a result of the emergence of new hotbeds of conflict in addition to the already

smoldering hotbeds. As for the stable areas, the municipalities of "Benghazi",

"Ajdabya" and "Abu Salim" are considered the largest hosts of displaced people in

Libya.

The matrix divides displaced persons into male and female, and each gender has four

age groups. It focuses on the special needs of displaced persons and returnees in the

various areas of their settlement, whether homes or public places such as schools, large


warehouses and complexes to which refugees resort. Their main needs are food, drink,

safety, hygienic items, and sanitation and health services. Moreover, the matrix also

includes information on where the displaced people are living and whether they are

renting a place themselves or there is another party paying the rent, such as a relative or

others hosting them. As for the displaced persons who returned to their home towns,

they are also subject to the same questions in addition to another question about the

place of settlement when they returned to their home region and whether it is their

former house or a new place so that to conclude whether the former house was destroyed

as a result of the war. The areas of "Ezzahra", "Al-Mayah" and "Benghazi" are the

largest areas to which displaced persons returned to in the last two years.

Each data matrix is based on the work of local organizations, crises and social affairs

committees in municipalities which themselves suffer an acute shortage in human and

financial resources and hence, unable to conduct larger and more accurate census. Local

organizations encounter a big obstacle that is the lack of cooperation of displaced

persons during the counting process due to the repeated requests about the number of

displaced persons, while this process does not end up with providing assistance to them.

This is due to the failure of the various governments in disbursing the funds to crises

committees in the purpose of providing displaced persons with their needs. In fact, last

year the International Food Organization alone distributed 210 thousand food rations in

Libya that is worth a total of $25.5 million, besides other assistance provided by foreign

organizations in Libya. In light of the clear absence of government role, local

organizations resort to working with the international community. Most of the large

local organizations working in the field of relief and assistance to refugees are supported

by international organizations. The latter oversee the process of distribution, delivery

and counting.

The successive governments were clearly absent from the scene of displaced Libyans

causing a loss of trust between the displaced and government. Without the firm laws,

municipalities enacted to count displaced people through crisis committees, the State


would not be able to find any local source to learn about the numbers of displaced

persons. Despite that, the counting processes within the scope of work of municipalities

are very weak and lack accuracy because they often rely on a sole source of information.

Most municipalities did not conduct a clear field survey to determine the exact number

of displaced persons in each municipality, besides the absence of a unified system that

work at a national level to link all internal systems in each municipality so that it could

benefit all relevant parties. In reality, in order to know the number of displaced persons,

one has to visit each municipality to verify data as they differ from the data provided by

social affairs, crisis committees, “Zakat fund”, and others entities concerned with

counting displaced persons in Libya. When identifying the number of displaced people,

international organizations provide financial support and human resources. Along with

their continuous support for the displaced, international organizations efforts have

significantly contributed to a better cooperation of all relevant parties with them.

Despite all these features, international organizations have not conducted a complete

field survey until now, which is normal as the cost of field survey is very high. All these

circumstances have led to the lack of a unified counting system accessed by all local

and international organizations as well as government to be the main source for

determining the number of displaced persons and their complete data. Such a system

requires large funding and human resources trained to manage this system which is not

available in these current circumstances.

Challenges Facing the Process of Counting Displaced Persons:

The success of any work is reliant on certain factors. This also applies to the counting

process of displaced persons. In this context, a set of factors are responsible for

obtaining accurate data which we would benefit from in diagnosing the displacement

movement in Libya as well as the needs of displaced persons. In fact, Libya is a very

big sprawling country so in order to ensure the success of the counting process, the

government has to ensure the freedom of movement for the team working inside the


country as well as their safety. However, Libya is currently suffering from the lack of

security and spread of crimes as well as a rickety infrastructure, absence of roads and

means of public transportation, and poor technology capabilities. All these factors

contributed to hindering the repeated counting processes and the training of human

resources to contribute to field research. In order to have successful projects we

sometimes substitute intensive training of all the staff and with a simplified training that

is conducted via phone or social media. Sometimes, this could lead to less accurate

results. In addition to the repeated power outage in the south and sometimes for long

periods of time during the summer that reach few successive days. These conditions

affect the process of data collection and exchange between the various working teams.

Moreover, the repeated cuts in communication and the low internet speed are among the

main factors contributing also to hindering the counting process. Furthermore, the

presence of armed militias in the areas of regional or ethnic conflicts is the main problem

encountering researchers during the data collection. In fact, researchers might be

prevented from conducting statistics about certain ethnicities or they might be forced to

inflate the numbers of displaced persons for either political interest or to benefit from

the available aids based on those inflated numbers. Unfortunately, inflating and

falsifying numbers is not limited to the militias only, but also some government bodies

or local organizations documented fake and inflated users. This problem could easily be

revealed if there would be more than one source of information in a certain area.

These disgraceful practices of local organizations affect their image and lead to

dysfunctional relationships between them and donors to the detriment of displaced

people in the first place. The Libyan government has indirectly contributed to the

inflation of displaced persons numbers, because most organizations which get involved

in such practices aim at to increase their share of food and non-food aid and its

distribution to needy families in their areas. These needy families are the government

priority that is why we will shed the light on the suffering of hosting communities

resulting from the displacement crisis .


Most communities in Libya are suffering from the negative effects of the very fragile

economic situation including the lack of liquidity, increase of primary commodity

prices, and daily life high cost for middle-income families. The burden is increasing on

citizens living in a host community due to the high cost of living and rent. This could

be one of the obstacles encountering the counting process of displaced persons. In fact,

the lack of cooperation of hosting communities with the research team might hinder any

counting process. However, no counting process can be conducted without the

cooperation of the hosting community and local organizations .

Strategies and Solutions to Facilitate the Counting Process of Displaced

Persons:

In order to conduct a successful counting process for internally displaced persons in

Libya, the government should have the will to make this work successful. We cannot

hold international organizations and their local partners responsible for the success of

the whole process. The adoption of a counting process by the government and

considering it a strategic project will definitely lead to the success of this operation as a

whole. The joint cooperation between local government institutions and international

organizations will result in concrete data of high accuracy and professionalism .

Without concerted efforts we will not obtain satisfactory results. Individual work has

not resulted until now in complete and accurate data. We will never have full

cooperation of displaced persons as long we do not ensure the protection of their

personal data and not handing it to any other party whatsoever unless for the benefit of

displaced persons and following a sovereign decision only. Additionally, the repeated

collection of data, as the case now in the counting processes in Libya, will bring about

a sluggish relationship between the displaced and the researchers and thus a lack of

cooperation in providing data on a regular basis. Therefore, all the relevant

organizations and governments in Libya have to:


Examine the overall situation of displaced persons and respond to all their needs.

Focus on creating a national database that links the displaced persons with their area

of settlement as well as monitor their movements from one place to another.

The need for all displaced persons to cooperate with all the organizations working on

collecting their data in the aim of providing assistance to them.

Displaced persons have to be responsible towards these organizations and report on

their departure to other area or in case of changes in their social situation .

In fact, the counting process is a joint responsibility between several parties working for

a sole objective that is providing assistance and support to the internally displaced

people and facilitating their everyday lives until granted relief, and the hope of a sound

and safe return to their home towns.


References:

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df?_ga=1.19253562.308600152.1483181801

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peal_16sept_v3_ar.pdf

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206%20Mobility%20Tracking%20Report%20-%20September%202016.pdf

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f

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http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/internal/documents/projects/wfp280663.pdf?_ga=1.19253562.308600152.1483181801

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http://www.globaldtm.info/libya/

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_3VYzW3ndOTaUlsSmFRSVdCN3M


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About LOOPS

The Libyan Organization Of Policies & Strategies (LOOPS) is an independent, nonprofit and

nongovernmental institution founded in December 2014 in Tripoli, Libya. A representative branch

was founded in Istanbul in January 2015.

The organization carries out research and studies related to emerging policy and strategy issues with

the aim of generating effective and successful policies and providing support to decision-makers.

The organization devotes its efforts to improving the performance of Libyan institutions and

advancing the economic and social welfare of the Libyan people. It seeks to spread the notions and

concepts of quality, good governance, strategic planning and a culture of excellence so as to

improve the performance of Libyan institutions.

LOOPS aspires to promote and spread knowledge about public policies and strategies to the state

through the dissemination of statistics, studies and periodic reports. It also organizes conferences,

workshops and forums as platforms for discussion, the exchange of opinions and spreading

knowledge.

Tripoli Office

Alnofliyin, Tripoli, Libya

Tel: 00218 21 340 01 43

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Istanbul Vizyon Park

Yenibosna Merkez MAH.29

Bahçelievler- Postal Code 34197

Ofis Plaz.A3 BLK

K: 3/D28

Phone: 0090 212 603 25 92

Fax: 0090 212 603 27 48

Istanbul, Turkey

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