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This “thought paper” is written by the special issue editors as a part of the five papers accepted and published in response to the special issue call for papers on logistics and SCM in the context of relief for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue on “refugee logistics” and analyse the nature and challenges of displacement from a displaced person’s perspective. The paper also argues for a more critical appreciation of the role and value that research in logistics, operations and supply chain management (LOSCM) can play in the delivery of services and care for refugees and IDPs from the perspective of preparedness and logistics planning of humanitarian organisations. The paper further outlines basic challenges to undertaking innovative, boundary pushing valuable and impactful research on “refugee logistics” given the difficult ideological, political and policy context in which “refugee logistics research” will be undertaken. The paper also advocates for more critical research in humanitarian logistics (HL), that explicitly acknowledges its ontological, epistemological and methodological limitations even when ethically sound. The paper concludes by suggesting a future research agenda for this new sub-field of humanitarian logistics research.

Conceptual paper utilising viewpoints, literature reviews as well as original ideas and thoughts of the authors.

The new field of “refugee logistics research” is important. It has been neglected in humanitarian logistics research for too long. Hence, there needs to be more research in this sub-field of humanitarian logistics.

This is a “thought paper”. It is the basic conceptual ideas of the authors. While it is not based on empirical work or data collection, it is based on a comprehensive literature research and analysis.

This paper advocates for the universal human rights of IDPs and refugees and their dignity, and how LOSCM can contribute to upholding such dignity.

It contributes indirectly to logistics policy and refugee policy as well as logistics service quality and advocacy for human rights and human dignity.

Refugee can refer to movements of large groups of displaced people, who could be either internally displaced persons or other migrants. According to UN High Commissioner Report for refugees (2017), 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide because of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violation alone. Now we are witnessing a massive shift of humanity unlike any seen before. A huge population around the world, which is equivalent to the entire population of the UK, is displaced from their homes. More than 23 million of them are from five places: Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Lake Chad Basin and Somalia. And the astonishing figures are 11.5 million people in five years between 2011 and 2016 in Syria, 4 million displaced from 2013 in South Sudan, 3.8 million in Afghanistan, 2.3 million in Africa's Lake Chad basin and 1.6 million in Somalia. All of the above have the reasons either being unemployment, insecurity and political instability or civil war or droughtlike phenomena, all of which can be summarized as economic crisis. Most of the time, we do our research on the subject about the wake of the crisis, but nobody do the prefacing matter analysis. This chapter is mainly based on the secondary data of the World Bank and the UNHCR and various governments' official data. In this chapter, we are trying to identify the major parameters responsible for refugee generation and also we are analyzing the cause of these phenomena, whereas no research has been done yet about the era prefacing that crisis.

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has further intensified the vulnerability of older persons in displacement and rendered them more unseen. This study aims at exploring the impact of COVID-19 on older people in displacement.

Data were obtained using semi-structured interviews from 12 older persons at Durumi IDP camp Abuja, while observing strict infection control measures. The data were inductively coded with Nvivo and analysed thematically.

Findings revealed that the economic and psychosocial fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased older persons in displacement poverty, psychological stress and placed them at risk of ageism, social isolation and may subsequently lead to secondary displacement, thereby losing all progress, development and resilience built after initial displacement.

This paper concluded by encouraging the need for all stakeholders to pay more attention to this invisible yet vulnerable group to ensure no one is left behind as people fight through this pandemic and its social implications.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the impact of COVID-19 on older people in displacement in Nigeria. This is because they have been relatively invisible to research endeavours.

The internally displaced persons (IDPs) are often overlooked population, falling between the cracks of international and national commitments. Displaced women and children go through more hardship than the male counterpart, as they are frequently at greater risk and do not get adequate access to the reproductive healthcare rights; they suffer from poor health amid threats of eviction. The purpose of this paper is to look into the IDPs reproductive healthcare situation in India and sustainable development goal (SDG) role in addressing the reproductive healthcare rights of the IDPs in India.

This paper is based on the available literature on reproductive rights of IDPs in India, analysis of the SDGs 3 and other legal safeguards.

The newly arrived IDPs in the camps have complex needs and health problems. They are susceptible to a number of health problems due to the exposure to physical and environmental threats, violence and trauma. Many of them face a loss of social networks and assets, knowledge and information in the new environment, and lack food security. They have inadequate shelter, healthcare services, sanitation and access to safe water.

This is a viewpoint paper and most of the information in this paper are taken from different sources which are cited in the reference section. There is a lack of sufficient data on IDPs in India. Most of the IDPs figures/data are quoted from Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and other literature.

To achieve the SDGs by 2030, India needs to take account of all people’s vulnerabilities to address their humanitarian and sustainable development needs. It is important that the development, humanitarian actors, along with the local communities, work collectively to respond to the health needs of the IDPs. Moreover, the active role of the government can provide the necessary assistance to guarantee the rights of IDPs health, adequate standard of living and to social security.

This paper highlights the reproductive healthcare rights of the IDPs in India and the challenges faced by them. It has analyzed the policy gaps. The paper also suggests few measures that can be undertaken to address those challenges under the SDGs.

The occurrences of disasters have become a common phenomenon in the world and there is evidence that the frequency and intensity of disasters are increasing. There have been more than 7,000 disaster events and around 265 million displacements in the period from 2008 to 2018, which constitutes more than three times of conflict and violence-related displacements (Disaster Displacement – A global review, 2019). Natural disasters are responsible for nearly 60,000 deaths per year on average and are responsible for 0.1% of global deaths. Various forms of natural disasters pose significant threats to lives, livelihoods, economic development, and ecological diversity around the world. Similar to the world scenario, Sri Lanka has a similar situation. Sri Lanka has been identified as a drought hot spot. Nearly, 15,000 people per million are at risk of disaster-induced displacement every year in Sri Lanka. During the Tsunami, in 2004, 31,000 human lives were lost, and more than a million people were displaced. Thus, natural disasters cause a huge negative impact on society and the economy in Sri Lanka. In this context, the main objectives of this study are to overview the disasters and displacements that have occurred during the last two decades and to explore the livelihood activities of the affected people and their best practices of disaster resilience. Secondary data were used to overview the disasters and displacements of the last two decades and the related policy framework of the country. Primary data were used to identify livelihood activities and disaster-resilient strategies of the affected people. In-depth interviews were conducted with an unstructured questionnaire from 15 recovered families who have been affected by Tsunami and landslides that occurred in the country. The purposive sampling method was used to select families from the most disaster-affected areas. Descriptive methods were used to analyze the data. The study revealed five recovery strategies followed by displaced people from tsunamis and landslides. Those are continuing with the previous livelihood activities as much as possible, moving to different livelihood activities, moving to different areas to find better jobs, attaining external assistance, and self-management on household finance. Finally, policy guidelines for building resilience in communities that will help to enhance their capacity to cope and recover from vulnerability are proposed in improving their lives.

Post-disaster population resettlement is a complicated process, during which the restoration of livelihood and lifestyle plays a critical role in achieving a successful resettlement outcome. This paper attempts to examine how recovery policies and relocation approaches influence people's livelihood recovery and perception of wellbeing. It specifically investigates the role of farmland in producing a livelihood and maintaining a rural lifestyle among displaced people.

Through face-to-face questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews with rural residents displaced from their villages after the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, China, this study presents both quantitative and qualitative evidence to investigate how post-disaster policies and particularly the availability of farmland influence people's recovery and their satisfaction with the post-resettlement life.

Data suggest that availability of farmland, in spite of the size, makes big differences in post-disaster recovery because farmland provides resettled people with not only a livelihood to secure basic living but also a guarantee to maintain a rural lifestyle.

More samples are needed for analyzing factors that significantly influence disaster-displaced farmers' recovery and wellbeing post resettlement.

This study can be used as an important reference for making plans for post-disaster recovery and population resettlement programs in other disaster-prone countries across the world.

Land-based relocation is proposed as a desirable approach to addressing challenges of livelihood restoration amongst the resettled population in rural areas of developing countries.

This paper aims to assess to what extent South American countries have integrated recommendations of the international agenda to address human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change in their national laws and policies.

This research sought to find the level of discussions around human mobility in disaster laws, NDCs and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) by looking for a range of search terms connected to human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change, followed by the content analysis of these terms.

Some advances with regards to human mobility are already confirmed in the domestic level of South American countries through humanitarian visas to disaster displaced persons and the inclusion of the topic in the DRR, climate change laws, NAPs and INDCs/NDCs. But they have not developed specific strategies with regards to it. Hence, their advances still require that national norms and policies are harmonized with the international guidelines. This will enable to fill the protection gap of people in context of disasters and climate change.

The results assess the level of harmonization above-mentioned between international instruments with national policies on human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change in South America.