Ben Rawlence, a former Human Rights Watch researcher, spent almost five years documenting life within the biggest refugee camp in the world: Dadaab, in Northern Kenya, and documented his findings in a newly published book, “City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp”.

On 17th June, 2016, UWC International hosted well over one hundred guests to the event “City of Thorns – Inside the World’s Biggest Refugee Camp” featuring former Human Rights Watch researcher Ben Rawlence as guest speaker. The event, generously hosted and supported by Deloitte in their London headquarters, aimed to raise awareness about refugees and to discuss how UWC can concretely support the education of young refugees with special scholarship programmes.

Participants, including UWC alumni, donors, representatives of UWC national committees and supporters, listened to Ben talk about his experience in Dadaab, North Kenya, the biggest refugee camp in the world where he spent almost five years. Ben shared his findings, documented in his newly published book “City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp” and, through the stories of some of Dadaab’s inhabitants, he helped to give a name and a face to the reality of the refugee crisis.