Humanitarian evacuations by humanitarian organizations in situations of armed conflict

I. Legal underpinning:

Humanitarian evacuations are primarily governed by International Humanitarian Law (IHL), notably the Fourth Geneva Convention and its Additional Protocols, which protect civilians during armed conflict. Under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the forcible transfer or deportation of protected persons is prohibited, except when imperative military reasons or the safety of the population necessitate a temporary evacuation. Such evacuations must uphold the rights of those affected, ensuring safety, dignity, and family unity.

In practice, humanitarian evacuations are a last resort, used only when no other means exist to protect civilians from imminent threats to life or physical integrity. Humanitarian organizations undertaking these operations must carefully balance the imperative to save lives with the risk of contributing to forced displacement. All actions must be guided by humanitarian principles, and evacuations should be based on the voluntary and informed consent of those being evacuated.

II. Risks and dilemmas in humanitarian evacuations

While humanitarian evacuations are lifesaving measures, they present significant legal, ethical, and operational challenges. These must be carefully assessed by UNHCR and other humanitarian actors involved in both the decision-making and implementation processes. Ultimately, the decision to evacuate hinges on a risk-based assessment, guided by the imperative to protect individuals from severe threats to life.

Key challenges include:

• Instrumentalization: Parties to the conflict may exploit evacuations as a military or political tactic, used to avoid concessions on humanitarian access or to manipulate demographics. Some parties may arbitrarily target populations who choose not to evacuate, despite IHL obligations to safeguard those who stay behind.
• Perception of neutrality and politicization: Providing assistance to specific ethnic or minority groups, even for legitimate protection reasons, may be opposed or perceived as biased by authorities or other actors. This can damage the credibility, neutrality, and security of humanitarian organizations, and undermine their ability to operate effectively.
• Fostering Ethnic Divisions: Evacuations often involve marginalized communities with distinct ethnic or socio-economic profiles, often targeted by armed actors or other communities. If not managed with care, they may inadvertently entrench exclusion, contribute to forced demographic changes, and result in long-term displacement. These outcomes can have serious legal and political repercussions for the organizations involved and for the broader humanitarian system.
• Consensus challenges: While consultation with affected populations is critical, a full consensus from all segments of the community may not be always feasible — due to the necessity to act quicky to an imminent threat to life, communication barriers etc. Nevertheless, efforts must be made to inform and engage communities meaningfully.
• Prioritization dilemmas: Limited resources and time constraints may force agencies to make difficult choices about who is prioritized during mass evacuations, which can deepen tensions or create perceptions of unfairness.
• Security risks during movements: Evacuation convoys may face security risks such as targeted attacks (ambushes, airstrikes) or explosive ordnance. Armed actors may impose access constraints and obstacles during evacuation. These risks highlight the need for thorough planning, preparation, and adequate security measures, including dialogue with conflict parties or engagement with Peacekeeping Operations where present.
• Challenges at destination: Evacuation sites must be carefully chosen to ensure safety, service access, and host community acceptance. Engaging both evacuated and host populations, along with local authorities and civil society, is essential to prevent new protection risks or tensions.
• Return challenges: Evacuees may not be able to return to their original homes, leading to protracted displacement or the perception of permanent removal.

Given complexity and risk, humanitarian evacuations must be consensual, collective, well-planned, and coordinated. UNHCR should assess risks and opportunities in consultation with other humanitarian actors, especially those with field presence and IHL expertise like the ICRC, and engage the humanitarian leadership (HC/RC).

III. Key operational considerations

• Humanitarian evacuations as exceptional measures for extreme circumstances: Evacuation decisions must be based on context analysis, assessment of the threats justifying evacuation, and exploration of alternatives, and considerations of risk. Humanitarian actors should first consider options to ensure access, protection, and the respect of IHL by parties to the conflict without evacuation. If evacuation is deemed the only viable solution, under the circumstances, appropriate relocation sites must be identified.
• Humanitarian evacuations must be well planned: Due to their complexity, clear preparedness plans, Concepts of Operations, and SOPs should be established in advance. These must cover, among other, security and administrative arrangements, communication protocols (e.g., radios, satellite phones), logistics (transport, convoy management, fuel, rest stops, medical vehicles, escorts if needed), and assistance en route and upon arrival. Responsibilities should be assigned based on capacity, resources, and contextual knowledge.

• Humanitarian evacuations must be voluntary, well-informed and non-discriminatory: They must rely on individuals’ voluntary and informed consent. Planning and decision-making must engage affected populations from the start, ensuring they are clearly informed throughout about relocation options, associated risks, procedures, timelines, and destinations.

  Information must be communicated in formats and languages accessible and understandable to all community segments. As much as possible, children, including unaccompanied, separated, and at-risk, should be given the chance to express views on decisions affecting them, with their opinions considered based on age, maturity, and capacity.

  Individuals must be free to decline evacuation. Attention should be given to those unable or unwilling to evacuate, as they may face increased risks, including misidentification as combatants.

  Clear guidance must be provided on evacuation routes, safety procedures, hazards, and the importance of carrying essential personal and family documents to ensure service continuity and legal recognition. Preparing “if asked” lines for humanitarian teams can help ensure message consistency.

• Evacuations must maintain a civilian character: Ensuring the civilian nature of evacuation movements is vital for the safety and protection of evacuees. A clear distinction between civilians and combatants must be upheld throughout all phases. Humanitarian evacuations concern only civilians, and armed elements must be prevented from joining convoys. Maintaining a perception of a strictly civilian and humanitarian operation helps reduce the risk of targeting by parties to the conflict. The use of armed escorts for security must be carefully assessed during planning to avoid increasing risks of attacks to convoys.
• Destination areas should be carefully selected: Safe relocation areas must be identified based on security conditions, availability of basic resources and services (including shelter, food, water, and healthcare), the presence of authorities, conditions of access for humanitarian actors, and the acceptance of host communities.

• Population identification and profiling: The registration/manifest of the population to be evacuated is a critical operational step for planning logistics (means and modalities of transport), preventing family separation (see below), and organizing specialized services en route and at destination.

  At minimum, registration should include family composition and identify individuals with specific needs or profiles—such as persons with disabilities, older persons, those with specific medical conditions, pregnant or breastfeeding women, child-headed households, separated or unaccompanied children, and individuals at risk of being targeted during evacuation, including minority groups.

• Preservation of family unity: Evacuations must consider the wishes of parents/caregivers and children, with the child’s best interests as a primary consideration. As part of the planning, practical measures must ensure families stay together—including siblings of children without parental care—and prevent separation in all phases. Registration must occur before transfers, and families, including as far as possible children, should be informed about timing, routes, and destinations. Institutionalized children should be evacuated together, ideally into family-based care, with proper planning and support. If separation inadvertently occurs, it must be brief, with swift reunification based on the child’s best interests. Assistance procedures must avoid incentivizing deliberate family separation (e.g., targeting unaccompanied children). On the ‘’best Interests Procedure in evacuation setting’’, please see Section 3.7.2 in the 2021 UNHCR Best Interests Procedure Guidelines: Assessing and Determining the Best Interests of the Child | Refworld.
• Safe access to basic assistance and protection services during the evacuation: Civilians must have access to essential services during evacuation, including transport, food, water, medical care (including maternal care and medications), hygiene supplies, and psychosocial support. Mobile teams with medical staff, social workers, interpreters, and protection personnel should accompany convoys as part of the operational plan. Where culturally appropriate and logistically feasible, transport of personal belongings and livestock should also be considered.
• Ensuring smooth convoy and movement management: During the evacuation, a convoy manager should be appointed to oversee the movement, including staging, departure, transit, and arrival. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) need to be developed and implemented, covering route planning and timing, check-in and manifest systems, contingency for emergency scenarios during movement, and communication protocols. It is important to determine early whether evacuees can use their own vehicles or if agency-managed transport is needed, as both options carry specific risks and logistical requirements.
• Support in areas of arrival/destination: Adequate assistance and services must be provided in destination areas. This may entail immediate support upon arrival and short- and long-term area-based assistance to prevent overburdening host communities or fueling tensions. Depending on the size of the evacuated population, strengthening local services and infrastructure may be necessary. These measures are typically discussed with local authorities during selection of the destination area.
• Securing referral or transfer of cases/personal information: For cases managed by UNHCR partners before the evacuation, any necessary referral or transfer of cases and related documentation to other actors/ partners after the evacuation should be carried out in a timely, secure, and confidential manner.
• Properly resourcing of humanitarian evacuations: These complex operations involve preparation, communication, transport, security, assistance, and protection during both the evacuation and relocation phases. Adequate resources must be secured by UNHCR, its partners, and other UN agencies and stakeholders. This should be factored into the preparedness phase.
• Communicating with external stakeholders: To obtain support, including resources, and reduce reputational risks, clear and consistent messaging is essential with host governments, donors, diplomatic actors, media, and the public. Communications should emphasize the humanitarian nature of the operation and avoid politicization. Preparing Q&A briefings in advance can help address effectively inquiries about the evacuation’s purpose, scope, and safeguards.
• Consult and advice: Although humanitarian evacuations are sparsely documented and each context is unique, seeking input from experienced humanitarian actors involved in similar efforts can be valuable.

IV. Working with others:

Given the complexity of humanitarian evacuations in armed conflict, UNHCR cannot operate alone. These efforts require risk and capacity assessments, detailed planning, coordinated execution, and information exchange with multiple stakeholders. Thus, evacuations are typically inter-agency operations involving UN agencies, authorities, civil society, possibly Peacekeeping Missions, and affected communities.

In the decision-making process, exploring alternatives may involve engaging actors with influence over parties to the conflict—such as diplomatic missions, regional entities, and international stakeholders.

When evacuation is the only viable life-saving option, ensuring safety and feasibility demands proactive outreach to parties to the conflict to secure safe passage, reduce hostilities along evacuation routes, and uphold respect for humanitarian operations and personnel. UN and agencies’ security personnel, Peacekeeping Operations, and civil-military coordination mechanisms play a critical role.

During the evacuation, convoy management, logistics, communication, en route assistance, and safety of populations and humanitarian staff must be collectively managed through clear procedures.

Given the number of actors involved, clear roles and responsibilities must be assigned, with one lead agency or coordination entity designated for overall planning and oversight, based on both mandate and operational capacity.

An Evacuation Working Group should be established, including key humanitarian stakeholders, authorities, and community representatives, with roles clearly defined, documented and regularly reviewed to ensure clarity and accountability.