displaced persons (IDPs), with some, albeit highly inadequate facilities, Hopley Farm was simply bare land with no facilities. Having placed several thousand people at Hopley the government established a checkpoint at Hopley Farm and restricted access to the people living there only to government officials. 5.1 Denial of humanitarian aid and harassment of human rights defenders At the end of July 2005 both ZLHR and Amnesty International researchers, who were visiting Zimbabwe at the time, received urgent messages from Porta Farm community members who had been forcibly displaced to Hopley Farm. The messages suggested that conditions at Hopley Farm were extremely poor and people were in desperate need of food. On 1 August Amnesty International met with some of the residents on the outskirts of Hopley Farm. They described the extremely poor conditions at the camp: people were sleeping in the open or in makeshift tents or whatever shelter they could find. A few people had been given asbestos sheets by government to use as shelter, but these were reported to be highly inadequate. There were no toilets and the entire community was forced to defecate in the bush around the camp, creating a serious health risk. A government water bowser [a water tank] brought an irregular supply of clean water, which was not sufficient to ensure everyone had access to a minimum essential supply of clean water for drinking and sanitation. People were gravely concerned about how they would find sufficient food to survive. Amnesty International subsequently obtained video footage, shot on 4 August, which clearly showed the dire conditions at Hopley Farm.41 Despite the clear humanitarian needs at Hopley Farm, the government was providing almost no humanitarian aid beyond an inadequate supply of water. Nor had it alerted humanitarian organisations or the UN or requested their assistance. On the contrary, when news of the plight of those at Hopley Farm began to circulate in Harare, organisations – including the UN - that went to the camp seeking to help the people were turned away by police and military officers. 42 The UN has subsequently been able to negotiate some humanitarian access to Hopley Farm and provide water and sanitation and food aid. Welfare operations at the camp appear to be run by the Ministry of Social Welfare. Conditions remain very poor and many of the people there are wholly reliant on humanitarian aid to survive. The UN has been prevented from providing the homeless victims of Operation Murambatsvina – including those at Hopley Farm - with proper emergency shelter, and the majority of people at Hopley continue to live in makeshift shacks. 43 The Zimbabwe authorities reacted negatively when human rights groups exposed the humanitarian situation at Hopley Farm. Former Porta Farm community leaders, now at Hopley Farm, were singled out for threats and harassment by ruling party youth and government officials because they are believed to have given information on the situation to human rights organisations. Amongst these has been Felistus Chinyuku. Felistus Chinyuku, a 65-year-old grandmother who looks after four orphans, came to Porta Farm in 1991 following evictions carried out in Mbare, a suburb of Harare. When Porta Farm was destroyed she lost her home of 14 years and her livelihood selling fish. Her grandchildren were by Operation Murambatsvina. Although numbering less than 6,000, the transit camp population was an identifiable concentration of IDPs. 41 Both ZLHR and Amnesty International raised the situation at Hopley Farm with UN agencies in Harare, during the week of 1 August. WFP personnel subsequently tried to visit the Farm on 4 August but were denied entry – see WFP Emergency Report No. 33, 12 August 2005. 42 When Amnesty International interviewed Hopley Farm residents on 1 August 2005 they reported that an NGO that had tried to provide some medical care to the displaced had been, “chased away by the police”. As noted above WFP personnel were denied entry to the Farm on 4 August 2005. The United States Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture, Tony Hall, was also turned away from Hopley Farm by army officers on 13 August. ZLHR lawyers Otto Saki and Tafadzwa Mugabe were turned away an army officer during October 2005. 43 Zimbabwe Independent, “UN rep slams Chombo over houses”, 1 January 2006.