This paper reviews the way in which UNHCR has responded when states close their borders to mass refugee influxes. Examining both the existing international legal framework and the political and practical experiences of the organization in reacting to border closures in the post-Cold War period, the paper considers whether a "policy toolkit? could be developed which would help to guide UNHCR responses to on-going and future border closures.
When High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres asked PDES to commission a study on this issue, his primary concern was the closure of the border between Somalia and Kenya. As the paper was being readied for publication in June 2010, however, the Uzbekistan government announced that it had closed its border with Kyrgyzstan in response to fears of a mass influx of refugees fleeing violent ethnic clashes in the city of Osh, five miles from the Uzbek border.