Filmmakers Nicolas Autheman and Delphine Prunault’s documentary—originally broadcast on French TV as Refugees: A Market Under Influence—serves up a bizarre report on the world’s refugee camps, arguing that they partially serve as profit centers for enterprising international companies. The film focuses on efforts by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to bring modern technology to the camps, even hosting a trade show in which corporations display everything from biometric software to an IKEA-produced refugee residence. A lengthy segment centers on a Cayman Islands-registered Jordanian company that created an eye-recognition program used by Syrian refugees who shop in a fully-stocked supermarket inside a refugee camp in Jordan. While the stakeholders involved insist their efforts are purely humanitarian and that any profit margin is extraordinarily miniscule, their activities can give the impression that there is a greater push on maintaining the camps—where more than 12 million people live—rather than solving world crises and working to bring the refugees back to safety and security in their homelands. An interesting documentary about the intersection of global capitalism and the socioeconomic aspects of the world’s refugee crises, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)
Who Benefits from the Camps? The Refugee Crisis
(2017) 52 min. DVD: $225. DRA. Film Ideas. PPR. Volume 33, Issue 6
Who Benefits from the Camps? The Refugee Crisis
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