Temporary Protection Directive

Why in news?

• Responding to refugee crisis, EU Member States have made an unprecedented decision to activate the Temporary Protection Directive.

What is temporary protection?

• 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”.

Reasons to establish standards:

• It reduces disparities between the policies of EU States on the reception and treatment of displaced persons in a situation of mass influx.
• It promotes solidarity and burden-sharing among EU States with respect to receiving large numbers of potential refugees at one time.

Origin of TPD:

• With USSR disintegration, there were multiple instances of armed conflict and ethnic strife in Europe.
• 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.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

‘Temporary Protection Directive’ of European Union, recently discussed in news, is associated with:

(a) Refugee protection

(b) Data security

(c) Counter-terrorism

(d) Service exports

Answer