Shatila refugee camp

Coordinates: 33°51′46.26″N 35°29′54.17″E / 33.8628500°N 35.4983806°E / 33.8628500; 35.4983806

The Shatila refugee camp (Arabic: مخيم شاتيلا‎), also known as the Chatila refugee camp, is a refugee camp, originally set-up for Palestinian refugees in 1949. It is located in southern Beirut, Lebanon and houses more than 9,842 registered Palestine refugees. Since the eruption of the Syrian Civil War, the camp has swollen with Syrian refugees, receiving mostly the poor Syrians, fleeing their country. As of 2014, the camp's population is estimated to be from 10,000 to 22,000.

History

Establishment

Shatila was set up by the International Committee of the Red Cross to accommodate hundreds of refugees who came there after 1948. They were from villages around the area of Amka, Majd al-Krum and Yajur in northern Palestine.

During Lebanese Civil War

The Sabra and Shatila massacre was the slaughter of between 762 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, by the Kataeb militia in the Sabra neighborhood and Shatila from approximately 6:00 pm 16 September to 8:00 am 18 September 1982.

Refugee camp

A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Camps with over a hundred thousand people are common, but as of 2012 the average-sized camp housed around 11,400. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, (such as the Red Cross) or NGOs. But there are also unofficial refugee camps, like the Calais jungle, where refugees are largely left without support of governments or international organisations.

Refugee camps generally develop in an impromptu fashion with the aim of meeting basic human needs for only a short time. Due to crowding and lack of infrastructure, some refugee camps can become unhygienic, leading to a high incidence of infectious diseases, including epidemics. If the return of refugees is prevented (often by civil war), a humanitarian crisis can result or continue. "Refugee camp" typically describes a settlement of people who have escaped war in their home country and have fled to a country of first asylum, but some camps also house environmental migrants and economic refugees.