Protracted Refugee Situations

A new set of documents focusing on protracted refugee situations can now be accessed via UNHCR's Policy Development and Evaluation Service (PDES) web pages. The collection includes UNHCR and other evaluation reports, research papers, and official documents dating from 1999 to 2004.

A protracted refugee situation is defined as "one in which refugees find themselves in a long-lasting and intractable state of limbo. Their lives may not be at risk, but their basic rights and essential economic, social and psychological needs remain unfulfilled after years in exile. A refugee in this situation is often unable to break free from enforced reliance on external assistance" (EXCOM Standing Comm. Doc. EC/54/SC/CRP.14, 10 June 2004). In statistical terms, such situations are measured as refugee populations of 25,000 or more people in exile for five-plus years.

The most recent edition of The State of the World's Refugees: Human Displacement in the New Millennium (2006) devotes its fifth chapter to a useful overview of the problem of "protracted refugee situations," with profiles of populations caught up in these situations, statistics on the numbers involved, and a discussion of possible solutions.

Elsewhere, the June-August 2007 UNU Update highlighted a recent Policy Brief on "Protracted Refugee Situations and Peacebuilding." This along with a workshop and an anticipated edited volume represent the culmination of a UNU project on the subject entitled "The Politics, Human Rights and Security Implications of Protracted Refugee Situations."

In addition, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants' campaign to end "refugee warehousing" provides more background about this issue, along with news and publications updates.

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