Refugee camp

Usually, refugees seek asylum after they have escaped war in their home countries, but some camps also house environmental and economic migrants.

[2] Refugee camps generally develop in an impromptu fashion with the aim of meeting basic human needs for only a short time.

[3] This can be partly explained by the high number of Syrian refugees renting apartments in urban agglomerations across the Middle East.

[6] Within this area, the following facilities can usually be found:[7] Schools and markets may be prohibited by the host country's government to discourage refugees from settling permanently in camps.

After registration, they are given food rations (until then only high energy biscuits), receive ration cards (the primary marker of refugee status), soap, jerrycans, kitchen sets, sleeping mats, plastic tarpaulins to build shelters (some receive tents or fabricated shelters).

Camps may have communal unisex pit latrines shared by many households, but aid agencies may provide improved sanitation facilities.

Poor sanitation may lead to outbreaks of infectious disease, and rainy-season flooding of latrine pits increases the risk of infection.

Cash / food / rental assistance delivered through humanitarian agencies should be short-term and conditional and gradually lead to self-reliance activities as part of longer-term development...

Those without a job or without relatives and friends who send remittances, need to sell parts of their food rations to get cash.

As support does not usually provide cash, effective demand may not be created[18] The main markets of bigger camps usually offer electronics, groceries, hardware, medicine, food, clothing, cosmetics, and services such as prepared food (restaurants, coffee–tea shops), laundry, internet and computer access, banking, electronic repairs and maintenance, and education.

[19]: 15 Investment by outside private sector organizations in community-based energy solutions such as diesel generators, solar kiosks and biogas digesters has been identified as a way to promote community economic development and employment.

Settlements and markets in bigger camps are often arranged according to the nationalities, ethnicities, tribes, and clans of their inhabitants, such as at Dadaab and Kakuma.

However, local police or the legal system of the host countries may not take responsibility for crimes that occur within camps.

Due to crowding and lack of infrastructure, refugee camps are often unhygienic, leading to a high incidence of infectious diseases and epidemics.

[29] Mental health concerns within humanitarian aid programs include stress about one's home country, isolation from support structures, and loss of personal identity and agency.

[30] These consequences are increased by the daily stresses of displacement and life within camps, including ongoing risks of violence, lack of basic services, and uncertainty about the future.

However, the perception of mental health is affected by cultural and religious values that result in different modes of expressing distress or making sense of psychological symptoms.

[30] Unique conditions for the mental health of refugees within camps has led to the development of alternative psychological interventions and approaches.

Some mental health services address the effects of negative discourses about migrants and the way that traumatic experiences affect and fragment identity.

A therapeutic support project in the Calais refugee camp focused on building spaces of collectivity and community, such as youth groups, to challenge the individualization of distress and trauma.

This project encouraged discussion of refugees' small acts of resistance to difficult situations and promoted activities from migrants' cultural roots to develop a positive conception of identity.

Due to widespread corruption in public service, there is a grey area that creates space for refugees to manoeuvre.

[36] Some camps grow into permanent settlements and even merge with nearby older communities, such as Ain al-Hilweh, Lebanon and Deir al-Balah, Palestine.

To prevent this the UNHCR promotes three alternatives to that: The largest refugee settlements in the world are in the eastern Sahel region of Africa.

As head of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband has advocated for abolishing refugee camps and the accompanying material aid altogether.

Informal camps provide physical shelter and direct service provision but also function as a form of political activism.

Asylum seekers who have been rejected and refugees without access to state services in Amsterdam worked with other migrants to create the "We are here" movement in 2012.

In response, a group of Belgian citizens and a collective of undocumented migrants built an informal camp in the Maximiliaan park in front of the Foreign Office and provided food, shelter, medical care, schooling, and activities such as a mobile cinema.

[105] The "Jungle" in Calais, France was an unofficial refugee camp, not legally approved by local or national French authorities.

[107] However, volunteer work in the Calais Jungle also functioned as a form of civil disobedience, because working within the camp fell within the definition of Article L622-1 of the French Penal Code, known as the "délit de solidarité" ("crime of solidarity"), which made it illegal to assist the "arrival, movement or residence of persons irregularly present on the French territory".