In February
UNHCR published new Guidelines on
Temporary Protection or Stay Arrangements (TPSA), a document that is
obscure where it should be clear,
explicit and broad where it should be narrow and conditional. It has the
potential to make refugees’ lives worse.
Temporary
protection, and its close cousin, prima facie recognition of refugee status,
has a long history but also urgent current importance (see, e.g., Syria). These
are essential mechanisms to provide immediate status to refugees in crises. But
they are also useful for governments that want to avoid full protection of
refugee rights. Because of this double edged sword, UNHCR could do much good by
laying down clear guidelines. But it has probably made matters worse.
“Temporary
protection” is a badly abused term in refugee policy, used to refer to a wide
range of very different things. Sometimes it is used to refer to protection of
groups above and beyond the international definition of a refugee (example:
USA). At the other extreme it is used by governments to re-label confinement
and detention of refugees and to defer their access to a stronger status
(example: Israel). UNHCR offices have also used temporary protection to freeze
cases by nationality (example: Sudanese in Egypt), cutting refugees off from
access to resettlement and sometimes social welfare assistance.
