Mbera/Bassikounou — Since April, when the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) started biometric registration of the Malian refugees in Mauritania’s Mbera camp, 8,000 of the 68,000 registered refugees have been de-activated from the system – almost all of them Mauritanians from nearby towns and villages hoping to access aid handouts. In September, a small group of camp residents tried to destroy the registration centre in protest of the new system, raising a key question: when and how should aid agencies helping refugees also try to assist vulnerable host populations?
The situation in Mauritania is by no means unique; many refugee camp populations are swollen with locals trying to access aid. Locals have even outstripped refugee populations in some crises said a UNHCR source.