Establishing and Sustaining Refugee Camps: Planning for Renewed Life.
Abstract
The process of providing humanitarian assistance to refugee situations is complex and fluid. It includes determining the legal status of the refugees, providing basic life sustaining needs, establishing safe-havens and camps, and seeking durable solutions. The integration of the military into the assistance process offers unique challenges to operational planners. The military offers capabilities which facilitate and may even speed refugee relief operations. A major challenge to planners is to integrate the military capabilities into the international response and assist in the attainment of permanent solutions for the refugees without building a refugee dependency on the assistance provided. in facing this challenge a requirement exists to write plans which establish self- governing refugee camps from which refugees can successfully transition to the strategically defined durable solution. This monograph focuses on a very small, but vital, portion of the refugee process and the military's involvement in it. Establishing and administering refugee camps is a mission that the military is frequently called on to perform. It is a mission that the military will continue to be called to perform. Historically the focus of this mission has been the physical construction of camps and providing administration and logistic support. However, a vital part of the mission which has an impact on the entire refugee process is the internal camp government with which all the actors interact. The goal is to establish a self-governing camp for the duration of the camp's life. The military planner must have an understanding of the refugee environment, how the refugees came to be such and what their desired end states are, and the basic civil-military interaction when planning to establish a self-governing camp.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA314807
Entities
People
- Robin J. Stauffer
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College