Background Act of violence committed against young girls in refugee camps may increase susceptibility to HIV and this is due sexual gender- based violence such as psychological abuse and discriminatory practises. The girls are forced to have sex with boys without condoms because of lack of household and decision making power. This Study explored the perception, knowledge, access and consistent use of condoms among young refugees and we hypothesised that there exit a significant relationship between them.

Methods Adolescent refugees (n = 187.13–19 years of age)from simple and stratified sample in Oru Refugee camp completed a self -administered questionnaire and focus group discussion was conducted differently for boys and girls between October and December 2008. We performed the analysis using SPSS and frequency distribution was also used.

Results The study shows that 52.4% of the respondents are female and 47.6% of them are Male. 56.7% of the refugees know of a place where one can get condom still about half of the girls did not use condom at their last sex because their partner will not allow and also because of discrimination. Chi-square test was used to compare their access to condom and use of condom which shows a significant relationship between them (Chi value = 39.724, DF = 1, P value = 0.000 < 0.05).

Conclusions The result shows that the young refugees are at risk of getting infected with HIV especially the female ones. The focus group shows that half of the female refugees reported that their partner will not allow them to use condom. The young girls need to be empowered on how to negotiate condom use with their partners. It is also necessary to achieve behavioural change communication programmes among these vulnerable people so that they can embrace safe and healthy behaviour, such as consistent use of condoms anytime they want to have sex