III.4.3 Urban refugees v. camp refugees

Main Debate

  • Legality of the encampment of refugees

Main Points

  • Urban refugee management and protection
  • Self-reliant v. vulnerable refugees in urban areas
  • Limitation of assistance to camp-based refugees
  • Camp location v. right to freedom of movement

Soft Law

  1. ‘The security and civilian and humanitarian character of refugee camps and settlements: Operationalising the ‘ladder of options’’, Executive Committee of the UNHCR, Standing Committee, 18th mtg., U.N.Doc.EX/50/SC/Inf.4 (27 June 2000).
  2. ‘Note on military and armed attacks on refugee camps and settlements’, Executive Committee of the UNHCR, Sub Committee of the whole on International Protection, 38th Sess., and U.N.Doc. EX/SCP/47 (10 August 1987).

Readings

Core

  1. UNHCR, UNHCR Policy on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas, September 2009.
  2. UNHCR, UNHCR Policy on Alternatives to Camps, UNHCR/HCP/2014/9, 22 July 2014.
  3. N. Briant, and A. Kennedy, ‘Priorities of African Refugees in an Urban Setting’, Journal of Refugee Studies, vol. 17, no. 4 (2004), pp. 437-459.
  4. Human Rights Watch, ‘Hidden in Plain View: Refugees Living without Protection in Nairobi and Kampala’ (2003).
  5. G. Goodwin-Gill, ‘Rwanda Zaire, Refugee Camps and the Protection of Refugees’, International Journal of Refugee Law, (1996) vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 631-633.
  6. A. Jamal, ‘Camps and freedoms: long-term refugee situations in Africa’, Forced Migration Review, vol. 16, (January 2003), pp. 4-6.
  7. B. Harrell-Bond, ‘Are refugee camps good for children?’, New Issues in Refugee Research, Working Paper, no. 29 (August 2000).

Extended

  1. K. Jacobsen, The Economic Life of Refugees, (Bloomfield: Kumarian Press, 2005).
  2. K. Kobia and L. Cranfield, Literature Review: Urban Refugees, September 2009.
  3. E. Odhiambo-Abuya, ‘From Here to Nowhere: Protracted Refugee Situations in Africa’, in A. Edwards and C. Ferstman (eds), Human Security and Non-Citizens, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 125-165.
  4. O. Bakewell, ‘Refugee aid and protection in rural Africa: Working in parallel or cross-purposes?’ New Issues in Refugee Research, Working Paper no. 35 (March 2001).
  5. UNHCR, ‘Report of the Mid-Term Review: Self-Reliance Strategy (1999-2003) for Refugee Hosting Areas in Moyo, Arua and Adjumani Districts’, RLSS Mission Report, Geneva, March 2004.