Internally Displaced Persons and Emerging Socio-Economic Challenges: An Assessment of the Odukpani and Bakassi Refugee Camps in Cross River State, Nigeria

The emerging security and demographic challenges in most developing countries of the world has midwife the emergence violence situation leading to the emergence of internally displaced persons, refugee camps as well as asylum seekers. These have become an issue of national, international and intellectual discourse. Many indigenous inhabitants have been displaced due to insecurity and violent crime orchestrating some socio-economic challenges at these camps. It is therefore the intention of this paper to do a critical assessment of these internally displaced persons and emerging socio-economic challenges within these refugee camps in Odukpani and Bakassi in Cross River State, Nigeria. The peculiar socio-economic challenges include food insecurity, overcrowding, hygiene and health challenges. The work adopted Frustration Aggression Displacement Theory by John, Neal, Leonard, Orval, Robert (1939). The data for the study was generated through the secondary sources and analyzed using qualitative technique. The finding revealed that the socio-economic challenges faced by these internally displaced persons at these refugee camps are a bane to the well being of the IDP. Hence, it was recommended that Humanitarians International Organizations should partner with Federal and State Governments to improve the state of the arts of the infrastructure at the IDP camps.