Is the Humanitarian Protection System Falling Apart or Quietly Evolving?
MAY 30, 2024
By Julian Hattem
For years, the international humanitarian protection system that emerged from the turbulence of World War II has seemed out of sync with growing demands. As the number of people forcibly displaced has reached record levels, a dwindling share is receiving permanent, durable protection. More people have been forced to flee, and many are moving longer distances in search of protection (in part due to the globalization of travel and greater availability of information). They are being pushed by more factors that overlap and intersect in complicated ways. And increasing numbers are being blocked from reaching their intended destinations, as some countries are externalizing their migration policies. While forced migration has increased, the systems for processing and receiving forced migrants have not.
In This Article
For a variety of reasons, more people are fleeing more crises and traveling longer distances
Many migrants face significant hurdles accessing countries where they aim to seek protection
Governments worldwide are experimenting with new ways to accommodate people in need
But instead of the collapse of international protection, a series of workarounds and innovations has evolved to offer sanctuary by other forms. Often these protections are of shorter duration. Some have been implemented in response to fast-moving crises, such as the European Union’s quick triggering of the Temporary Protection Directive when millions of Ukrainians were displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Others have been long-in-the-works efforts to redirect refugees and asylum seekers into other legal pathways. The net effect has been a quiet evolution of international protection that is being shaped not via major treaties and international laws as was the case in the postwar era, but more subtly and in different directions, involving individual country policies and experiments that are not always in concert. This new and less immediately definable set of standards and protections may end up providing many people with the safety they need as the world edges closer to the centennial of the current protection architecture.
Importantly, most internationally displaced people live in the Global South, often in countries adjacent to migrants’ origins. The 11.3 million refugees in Iran, Turkey, Colombia, and Pakistan (the five largest refugee-hosting countries, with Germany) have placed significant strain on those countries. One reason for this situation is the barriers preventing displaced people from moving onward.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/humanitarian-protection-evolution
