This article examines urban–territorial transformations linked to forced migration in the Colombian-Ecuadorian Amazon borderlands. It draws on doctoral research tracing settlement trajectories and local governance in Mocoa (Colombia) and Lago Agrio (Ecuador), based on longitudinal fieldwork from 2005 to 2020. In the absence of sustained state policy for dignified habitat, displaced and refugee communities mobilized collectively to access land, housing, and basic services. The resulting pattern of peripheral urbanization, though formally unplanned. was shaped through grassroots action and negotiated legality. These dynamics highlight the interplay between displacement, territorial appropriation, and the production of urban space at the margins of state regulation. This analysis extends the Cities of Refuge framework by engaging with territorial ordering, residual urbanization, and rural repertoires that persist along urban peripheries. Four settlements (Porvenir and Paraíso in Mocoa; ACER and Nuevo Recinto in Lago Agrio), are analyzed through the lenses of refuge, spatial regulation, and community appropriation. Findings reveal divergent trajectories: partial consolidation in Mocoa, and ongoing, cyclical displacement in Lago Agrio, driven by tenure insecurity and institutional ambiguity.