Traditional approaches to refugee protection commonly distinguish between an immediate, humanitarian response—providing for basic needs—and the more long-term, developmental approach that ought to be applied to protracted refugee situations where refugees live for years in a host country. Yet, these supposedly distinct situations often overlap, and the fact that the average length of refugee residency in a host country is now 17 years means we need to re-think responses—promoting self-sufficiency ought to be prioritized over long-term aid dependency.
The immediate humanitarian response to refugees involves providing for their most basic needs, such as access to food, clean water, sanitation facilities, shelters, and health care. Over time, additional services are provided, including prevention and response services for sexual and gender-based violence, support for children at risk and primary school education. In reality, this type of humanitarian work may occur simultaneously with a protracted refugee situation, where new refugees arrive to a camp where protracted refugees have been living for decades. This creates a situation where protracted refugees—with their own legal and physical protection needs—may experience deteriorated services as new arrivals strain the existing infrastructure and assistance programmes.
