We would like to reproduce hereafter an article by Lucy Hovil called "With camps limiting many refugees, the UNHCR’s policy change is welcome" dated 02 October 2014 and published in The Guardian. It analyses UNHCR new position on alternative to refugee camps.
It is rare to witness a paradigm shift in refugee protection. But such a shift has just happened with the release of the new policy from the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) on alternatives to refugee camps.
For refugees and their advocates, who have been shouting for years about the perils associated with camps, the policy is almost too good to be true. As it states: “From the perspective of refugees, alternatives to camps means being able to exercise rights and freedoms, make meaningful choices regarding their lives and have the possibility to live with greater dignity, independence and normality as members of communities.” It makes perfect sense. But why has it taken so long? For decades, the default response to refugee crises has been to set up camps or settlements and coerce refugees into them. Camps, it was argued, were best suited to meet the social, economic and political realities in which refugees are living.
