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Mahesh

10/03/22 15:50 PM IST

Temporary Protection Directive of 2001

In News 
  • Over 1.5 million people fled Ukraine in the first 10 days of fighting, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which has described the displacement as the “fastest growing refugee crisis since the Second World War”.
Details 
  • Responding to the crisis, EU Member States on March 3 made the unprecedented decision to activate the European Union’s Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001, known as the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD).
  • The European Commission describes “temporary protection” under the TPD as an “exceptional measure to provide immediate and temporary protection to displaced persons from non-EU countries and those unable to return to their country of origin”.
  • The directive applies when “there is a risk that the standard asylum system is struggling to cope with demand stemming from a mass influx risking a negative impact on the processing of claims.
Why TPD was activated ? 
  • The Commission gives two reasons for doing so. “First, it reduces disparities between the policies of EU States on the reception and treatment of displaced persons in a situation of mass influx. Second, it promotes solidarity and burden-sharing among EU States with respect to receiving large numbers of potential refugees at one time.”
  • Article 1 of Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 underlines that the purpose of the Directive is to both “establish minimum standards for giving temporary protection” to displaced persons as well as to “promote a balance of effort between Member States in receiving and bearing the consequences of receiving such persons”.
About TPD 
  • As the USSR disintegrated, the 1990s saw multiple instances of armed conflict and ethnic strife in Europe. Yugoslavia disintegrated into its constituent republics amid fighting; Croats and Serbs fought bloody wars in Bosnia; Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh;
  • As large numbers of people were displaced by these conflicts, the EU felt the need to put in place special procedures to deal with mass influxes of displaced persons.
  • The 2001 Temporary Protection Directive provided a tool for the EU to address such situations.
  • The war in Ukraine is the first time that the EU has invoked the TPD. It is being seen as another sign of European unity against Russia.
Source- Indian Express 

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