Protracted displacement situations

Forced Migration Review

Elia Kidibu, a 1972 Burundian refugee, sorting through photos as he packs his belongings for repatriation to Burundi. November 2008.

Photo credit: UNHCR/B Bannon

Protracted refugee situations constitute nearly 70% of the world’s refugees. Refugees trapped in these situations typically live without legal status and are denied a range of basic rights. Finding solutions to these situations have proven elusive for humanitarian actors, including the United Nations.

This resource summary complements Forced Migration Review Issue 33, September 2009: Protracted Displacement.

FMO Resources

• Policy Briefing: Development assistance and refugees: towards a North-South grand bargain?
• The PRS Project website
• FMR Special Issue: Ten years of the guiding principles on internal displacement
• FMR Supplement: Protecting and assisting the internally displaced: the way forward
• FMR 17: When does internal displacement end
• Iraqis in Egypt: Time is Running Out [Video]
• West Bank Stories [ Video]

Documents

Selected full-text documents (for more, search in the Digital Library)

• Camps and freedoms: long-term refugee situations in Africa, Jamal, Arafat, 2003
• Development during crisis: promoting asset-building in protracted refugee situations, McDougal, Topher Leinberger, 2006
• Minimum standards and essential needs in a protracted refugee situation: a review of the UNHCR programme in Kakuma, Kenya, Jamal, Arafat, 2000
• Responding to protracted refugee situations: a case study of Liberian refugees in Côte d'Ivoire, Kuhlman, Tom, 2002
• Responding to protracted refugee situations: a case study of Liberian refugees in Ghana, Dick, Shelly, 2002

Web Resources

Selected web-based information resources (for more, search the FMO website)

• Protracted Refugee Situations: A discussion paper prepared for the High Commissioner's Dialogue on Protection Challenges, 20 November 2008
• UNHCR 2006 State of the World’s Refugees, Chapter 5 – Protracted Refugee Situations
• Protracted Refugee Situations, A wide-ranging collection of UNHCR documents on the issue of protracted refugee situations, published since 1999.
• Protracted Internal Displacement in Europe: Current Trends and Ways Forward, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre of the Norwegian Refugee Council, 2009
• A surrogate state? The role of UNHCR in protracted refugee situations, UNHCR, Slaughter, Amy and Crisp, Jeff, 2009

Relevant Organizations

Contact details for relevant organizations (for more, search in the Organizations Directory)

• Brookings Bern Project on Internal Displacement
• International Crisis Group
• International Rescue Committee
• Norwegian Refugee Council Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
• Open Society Justice Initiative
• Refworld
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
• US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Campaign to end Human Warehousing
• Women’s Refugee Commission