A refugee camp is a place where people who flee their country to escape persecution, armed conflict, or political violence, can (in principle) live in safety. Over thirty-nine million people worldwide live as refugees or internally displaced persons (IDP). Not all of them gather in camps. Some are settled among the local population, and some try to seek asylum in other countries. However, the majority of the world's refugee population finds an immediate, if temporary, protection in camps.

Refugee camps are usually close to borders of the country in which the refugees originate and are established by host countries or an international organization, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Some camps are carefully planned, but others emerge spontaneously, out of necessity, despair, and destitution, without taking fundamental considerations such as...