Giving voice to refugees on the Thai-Burma border

Communication as aid:

University of Oxford Refugee Studies Centre @victoriajack #commisaid“Refugee Voices” International Conference @refugeestudies #refugeevoices

A refugee’s voice

“If you decide your fate on rumours, it is all wrong. So that is the point I want you to understand… There will be a time when you

have to decide whether to go back [to Burma]. And when you are going to decide, you must know the information.

“Without the accurate information, it is very difficult to decide.”

– Refugee, Nu Po, male, 55

The criticality of information

• Refugees need more than physical necessities – they need information

• Information needs are inflamed by discussions concerning voluntary repatriation

• Focus 1: The importance of information to refugees

• Focus 2: The criticality of two-way communication

Background

• The project explores “communication as aid” through the lens of camps on the Thai-Burma border

• #Commisaid is an emerging concept in the humanitarian sector

• Humanitarian assistance is enhanced by information exchange with communities (Abud, Quintanilla & Ensor, 2011; Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, 2011; International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2005; Wall & Gerald-Chery, 2011)

The unknown: designing effective “communication as aid” strategies

• There is an urgent need for empirical “communication as aid” studies (CDAC Network, 2012; Mandel & Sommerfeldt, 2012; Wall & Gerald-Chery, 2011)

• Crisis communication is the exchange of information between an organisation and its publics in order to address a crisis situation (Coombs, 2010a; Fearn-Banks, 2007)

• Crisis response should prioritise the provision of information to

affected publics, but little is known about how to meet their needs (Coombs, 2007; Coombs, 2010b)

In the field

• Semi-structured interviews

• 53 refugees from Mae La, Umpiem and Nu Po refugee camps

• 30 practitioners from key humanitarian and media organisations

• Participant observation at Mae La, Umpiem and Nu Po

Communication: a crucial role

Refugees linked a lack of information to:

• Inability to make informed decisions

• Disempowerment

• Fear, confusion

• Frustration

• Anxiety, depression

“[I feel] so confused sometimes. Sometimes people who live in refugee

camp said Burmese soldier come [sic] to the refugee camp and then they are

fighting and so I am scared, but whether it’s true or not, I don’t know.”

– Refugee, Mae La, female, 31

“When we didn’t get enough information, we cannot make decisions for our future.

It makes us feel very sad. Sometimes we get depressed.”

– Refugee, Mae La, male, 61

Communication: a crucial role

• Aid workers also acknowledged the critical role of information

• Aid workers said the prospect of repatriation was exacerbating information needs

• Information provision is a challenge aid agencies are unsure how to tackle effectively

“We find information flow difficult and quite challenging, so we try to use as many approaches as we

think [we need] in order to get the information out… But still, you

could easily walk into Mae La in some remote corner and ask someone, ‘is there vocational

training offered in this camp?’ And they’d say no…

“It’s amazing how hard it is to get the information out there. Let alone whether it’s accurate or not, that’s a

completely different story.”

–Aid worker

Existing mechanisms

• Camp mechanisms: section meetings, loudspeakers, noticeboards

• Mass media: limited access to radio, television, newspapers, magazines, internet, mobile phones

“It’s not consistent, it’s sporadic. It’s not effective. It depends what camp, what

section. So some camps have excellent loudspeakers, but in some sections it

doesn’t work.”

– Aid worker

Existing mechanisms: the issues

• Lack of coordination

• Lack of minimum standards

• Lack of information, particularly about individual circumstances, from trusted sources

• Environment conducive to the spread of distorted, inaccurate information

“Mainly I got the news from person to person… it’s not reliable.”

– Refugee, Umpiem, male, 43

“I don’t know when and where they will send us, but I heard maybe they

will send us by force.”

– Refugee, Mae La, male, 61

Two-way communication

• Communication is a meaning-making process that requires two-way information flow (Botan & Taylor, 2004; Cutlip, Center & Broom, 2006; Heath, 2001)

• By listening – and talking – aid agencies can:

• Facilitate conversations, better understand and respond to debates

• Empower and give voice to the marginalised

• Identify information needs as they change over time

• Take advantage of the opportunity to clarify misunderstandings, address confusion and build trust

Two-way communication

• Refugee interviews identified constraints and considerations:

• E.g. Most trusted sources, most accessible sources, language, native media habits that influence engagement with various mediums.

• Aid worker interviews also highlighted key factors:

• E.g. Geographical location, resource constraints, local policy and regulations

From theory to practice

• Constraints and complexities of the camp environment make “communication as aid” a challenge

• Internews media projects provide some guidance, in particular:

• The use of research teams so that content reflects information needs

• Involving communities in dialogue, through calls-ins, stories, debates and discussions

Conclusion

• Communication has an important psychosocial role and helps refugees make informed decisions

• Two-way communication is key to understanding information needs and how to communicate most effectively

“I think having access to information would be very important for the refugees not only to make informed decisions but also

for them to feel that they are considered worthy human beings that deserve to know about the world and issues that

affect them.

“In my opinion, listening to refugee voices and involving them in their own affairs would be one of the most empowering

activities that organisations could undertake.”

– Aid worker

References

Abud, M., Quintanilla, J. & Ensor, D. (2011). Dadaab, Kenya. Humanitarian communication and information needs assessment among refugees in the camps: Findings, analysis and recommendations. Washington, DC: Internews. Retrieved from http://www.internews.org/sites/default/files/resources/Dadaab2011-09-14.pdf Botan & Taylor. (2004). Public relations: State of the field. Journal of Communication, 55(4), 645-611. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2004.tb02649.xCDAC Network (2012). The CDAC network moving forward: strategy 2012-2016. Retrieved from http://www.cdacnetwork.org/sites/www.cdacnetwork.org/files/the_cdac_network_strat egy_2012-2016_-_final_january_2012.pdf Coombs, W. T. (2007). Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Coombs, W. T. (2010a). Parameters for crisis communication. In W. T. Coombs & S. J. Holladay (Eds.), The handbook of crisis communication (pp. 17-53). West Sussex, England: Blackwell. Coombs, W. T. (2010b). Crisis communication: A developing field. In R. L. Heath (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of public relations (pp. 477-499). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Cutlip, S. M., Center, A. H. & Broom, G. M. (2006). Effective public relations (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Fearn-Banks, K. (2007). Crisis communications: A casebook approach (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. (2011). Disaster relief 2.0: The future of information sharing in humanitarian emergencies. Washington, DC: UN Foundation and Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership. Retrieved from http://issuu.com/unfoundation/docs/disaster_relief20_report International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (2005). World disasters report 2005: Focus on information in disasters. Geneva, Switzerland: Author. Retrieved from http://www.ifrc.org/Global/Publications/disasters/WDR/69001- WDR2005-english-LR.pdf Heath, R. L. (2010). Crisis communication: Defining the beast and de-marginalizing key publics. In W. T. Coombs, & S. J. Holladay (Eds.), The handbook of crisis communication (pp. 1-13). West Sussex, England: Blackwell.Mandel, J. & Sommerfeldt, E. (2012). Closing the loop – responding to people’s information needs from crisis response to recovery to development: A case study of post-earthquake Haiti. Washington, DC: Internews. Retrieved from http://www.internews.org/sites/default/files/resources/Haiti_ClosingTheLoop_2012-05-screen.pdfWall, I. & Gerald-Chery, Y. (2011). Ann kite yo pale/Let them speak. Best practice and lessons learned in communication with disaster affected communities: Haiti 2010. Internews & BBC World Service Trust. Retrieved from http://www.internews.org/sites/default/files/resources/IAA_Haiti_2010_0.pdf