War, displacement, and the best location for temporary sheltering: a qualitative study

Background: One of the most important consequences of man-made disasters in the world is the loss of homes and, ultimately, forced population displacement. The sheltering of forcibly refugees to safe areas requires the study of scientific criteria.

Methods: This qualitative content analysis study was conducted in Iran to identify the criteria for the sheltering of refugees due to conflict. Participants in the study comprised experts and managers who had expertise, experience, or knowledge in the shelter for refugees. Data was collected in semi-structured interviews with 20 individuals and analyzed by qualitative content analysis to extract and categorize the factors affecting sheltering for refugees.

Results: The results of this study showed that a wide range of factors should be considered in the sheltering of refugees due to conflict, including land type, access to facilities, access to infrastructures, homogeneity, and similarities, security, distance from danger, environmental factors, economic issues, and political and legal issues. These nine categories covered 53 subcategories and 188 factors.

Conclusions: The comprehensiveness of the factors mentioned in this study showed that the sheltering of refugees due to conflict requires planning, training, culture building, promoting readiness, and inter-organizational coordination. Moreover, managers, policymakers, decision-makers in relief agencies, humanitarian organizations, and organizations involved in sheltering of refugees due to conflict should attend to these factors to improve the process and prevent problems.