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Camp Strategy considerations

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Key points
  • A defining characteristic of camps is that they often limit the rights and freedoms of refugees such as their ability to move freely, choose where to live, work or open a business, cultivate land or access protection and services and their ability to make meaningful choices about their lives.
  • Pursuing alternatives to camps means working to remove such restrictions so that refugees have the possibility to live with greater dignity, independence and normality as members of the community, either from the beginning of displacement or as soon as possible thereafter.
  • Programme design, including advocacy priorities, will be determined by the particular circumstances of each operation.Wherever possible, work to find alternatives to camps and toward the removal of obstacles for persons of concern to the exercise of rights and achieving self-reliance.
  • Site selection for planned camps is a critical factor in the ability to provide a safe and healthy environment for persons of concern. Developing an inappropriate site or failing to develop a site to standards can result in further displacement causing unnecessary further loss and distress to refugees and may put some people/groups at further risk.
  • Camps require significant investments in infrastructure and systems for the delivery of basic services. The running costs for maintaining and operating these dedicated facilities and systems are also considerable and often must be sustained for many years or even decades.

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