International Evacuations of Refugees and Impact on Protection Spaces: Case Study of UNHCR Evacuation Programme in Libya

Cross-border mass evacuations of refugees are complex operations that require the support of the international community, which must agree to receive the evacuees. However, while they may be effective in evacuating a portion of the population at risk, they could leave behind non-evacuated refugees. In that case, a comprehensive analysis of how evacuations impact the protection spaces of the non-evacuated is to be carried out. Being highly visible and disruptive programmes, refugee mass evacuations also carry distinguishable political elements and can be instrumentalised for that. This essay researches the UNHCR evacuation programme from Libya. The programme has successfully evacuated circa 4,500 persons to safety, yet there are concerns regarding its scalability and impact on protection spaces. In Libya, UNHCR was forced to close a new dedicated facility after only 15 months, and reports emerged that damaged the agency’s reputation and questioned its work. In Niger and Rwanda, where evacuees are hosted pending resettlement, the proceedings require time, which slows the whole process. On the other side of the Mediterranean, Italy and the EU use the evacuation programme as their ‘humanitarian alibi’ for restrictive policies, making it harder for the refugees in Libya to escape the cycle of detention, exploitation, and abuses in which they are trapped. The Libya operations’ problems reveal many details of the complexity, inherent risks, and moral dilemmas of evacuating refugees.