Rwamwanja is not a typical refugee settlement. It is spacious, fertile land. The Ugandan government has made a significant plot of land available to each refugee family, approximately 50m2. This is to enable people to grow their own food, so that they are less dependent on aid.

The long-term hope is that people here will return to DRC once the security situation improves, but in the meantime UK aid is providing much-needed support.

This World Refugee Day, UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, has said that more than 45.2 million people were forced to flee their homes in 2012, an 18-year high. It said that globally, at the end of 2012, there were 15.4 million refugees, 937,000 asylum seekers and 28.8 million people forced out of their homes but who stayed within their nation’s borders.

The UK is one of the largest contributors to UNHCR, and actively contributes to the work of many humanitarian organisations, helping to meet the needs and protect the rights of refugees, stateless people and those internally displaced within their own country.