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The Un "Surrogate State" And The Foundation Of Refugee Policy In The Middle East, Michael Kagan

Scholarly Works

Many challenges surrounding refugee protection relate to a de facto shift of responsibility from sovereign governments to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to directly administer refugee policy. This phenomenon is legally anomalous, and it is UNHCR policy to avoid the operation of such "parallel structures." Yet the existence of a UN "surrogate state" offers important advantages to some host governments, which makes state-to- UNHCR responsibility shift difficult to reverse. Using the Arab Middle East as a case study, this article argues that, while not ideal, UNHCR's state substitution role offers important symbolic and material benefits to governments that host refugees …