Temporary Protection
How mass displacement crises are handled through temporary protection mechanisms, from the Balkans to Ukraine.
When the System Is Overwhelmed
Individual refugee status determination, where each person's claim is assessed through an interview and decision process, works when numbers are manageable. But when hundreds of thousands of people flee simultaneously, as happened in the Balkans in the 1990s and Ukraine in 2022, the system cannot cope. Applications would take years to process while people languish in uncertainty. Temporary protection is the response: a group-based mechanism that provides immediate protection without individual assessment.
The EU's Temporary Protection Directive (TPD), adopted after the Balkan wars but never used until 2022, was activated for the first time in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It granted Ukrainians the right to reside, work, access housing, education, and healthcare in any EU member state for up to three years, without needing to apply for asylum individually. Over 4 million Ukrainians received temporary protection across the EU.