What are humanitarian corridors?

Also known as evacuation routes or safe passages, most humanitarian corridors are protected pathways created for a specific period to guarantee that civilians can safely leave dangerous areas or that aid workers can deliver food, medical supplies and other necessities to those who remain. Crucially, humanitarian routes require cease-fires and security guarantees to be effective, humanitarian experts Kirsten Gelsdorf and Jacob Kurtzer wrote in an article on the University of Virginia’s website. Civilians can become sitting-duck targets if one or more of the warring parties does not respect the agreement. Sometimes the corridor is a stretch of road linking two cities or nations. Other times a specific civilian location like a hospital is designated as a protected spot, Gelsdorf, U-Va.’s director of global humanitarian policy, said in an interview. Boundaries, as well as start and end times, are shared with civilians to help them decide whether and how to leave. The key is that the warring parties create and uphold these corridors to protect civilians as required under international law. “It’s not actually a concession in conflict,” Gelsdorf said. “It’s actually a legal obligation under the Geneva Conventions.” Adopted in 1949, the Geneva Conventions require nations to allow the “rapid and unimpeded passage” of relief items, including food and clothing, to people in danger — humanitarian protections for civilians caught in the middle of war. The United Nations also passed a resolution in 1990 recognizing the concept of relief corridors for humanitarian — not political or military — purposes. The United Nations or other countries sometimes help warring parties agree upon these pathways.

When have these routes been used in the past?

Humanitarian corridors don’t always guarantee safety, and there has been little research on how effective they are during war. After the kindertransports before World War II, the evacuation routes were used again beginning in 1989, when the United Nations brokered an agreement to establish humanitarian corridors to transport aid to both sides in the Second Sudanese Civil War. In the Bosnian War in the 1990s, “safe areas” established for civilians continually fell under attack. At least 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed in the town of Srebrenica , meant to be a protected area, in 1995 — the worst mass murder in Europe since World War II. Russia has a history of reneging on commitments to respect humanitarian corridors. In Syria’s civil war, in which Moscow militarily supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia has used cease-fires and humanitarian access agreements for strategic gain. During one cease-fire in 2016, Russian forces used the denial of food as a weapon to prompt infighting, Emma Beals, a senior adviser at the European Institute of Peace, wrote on the European Leadership Network’s website . In Ukraine, Beals wrote, “Ceasefires that do not also require withdrawal or prevent military manoeuvring may be followed by periods of heightened conflict and violence.”

How are humanitarian corridors being used in Ukraine?

The use of these corridors in Ukraine has been haphazard. Despite cease-fire agreements, Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of continuing their attacks and rendering the routes impassable. The two nations first announced the creation of humanitarian corridors on March 3, about a week after Moscow invaded. Cease-fires would be established for a specific period to let civilians escape and to allow food and medical supplies to enter, the countries said. But less than three hours after both sides were supposed to have paused hostilities, Ukraine accused Russia of continuing to shell the southern cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha. The Russian Defense Ministry countered that its forces had resumed fighting because the Ukrainian military had used the cease-fire to reinforce its positions. The Ukrainian government later rejected a proposal by Moscow to create an evacuation route leading from cities under fire into Russia or its ally Belarus. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Russia’s talk of humanitarian corridors as “just cynicism, just propaganda.” Since then, humanitarian corridors have transported residents away from Sumy, the Kyiv area, Enerhodar and the port city of Mariupol, among other regions. While some civilians have gotten out from hard-hit Mariupol, Ukraine has accused Russian forces of blocking a desperately needed aid convoy from reaching the city, where residents lack heat and water. The International Committee of the Red Cross and other aid organizations sometimes help facilitate humanitarian corridors. At times when humanitarian corridors have turned perilous, the group has called on both sides to ensure their agreements include precise locations on routes and the timing of a cease-fire. While Ukrainian officials have said tens of thousands of people have evacuated through humanitarian routes, obtaining a firm estimate is nearly impossible. The Washington Post has not independently verified the Ukrainian government’s numbers. Regardless of the corridors’ use, Gelsdorf said they should be one piece of a comprehensive civilian-protection strategy that includes broader cease-fires, consistent aid delivery and agreements not to attack civilian facilities such as hospitals. “A risk with them is that sometimes they’re used as a diplomatic bargaining chip, rather than a way to implement all the obligations under international humanitarian law,” she said. “They need to be done in collaboration with negotiating for wider protection of civilians and access to populations in need.”

Humanitarian corridors are meant to evacuate civilians in war. But they can be dangerous.

By Marisa Iati

March 17, 2022 at 5:27 p.m. EDT

Evacuees from Mariupol, Ukraine, are seen March 16 at a shopping center on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, which is now a registration center for displaced people. (Emre Caylak/AFP/Getty Images)

As shelling from Russian forces rains down on major Ukrainian cities, thousands of people are sheltering in subway stations, libraries and theaters while others try to escape.

To facilitate their evacuation and the arrival of aid into hard-hit areas, Ukrainian and Russian officials have periodically agreed to establish humanitarian corridors — with mixed results. While Ukraine has said that tens of thousands of people have used these routes, it has also accused Russia of repeatedly attacking protected areas.

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Safe passageways during times of conflict date back to at least shortly before World War II, when 10,000 children were transported out of Nazi-controlled countries on trains, boats and planes called “kindertransports.” In 1949, the Geneva Conventions established protocols to ensure civilians have access to critical goods such as medicine during war.

But history shows that humanitarian corridors offer no guarantees. Time and again, civilians have been hit while trying to escape along a route that was supposed to be safe. Even when they work, they often aren’t a solution for the most vulnerable.

“It’s basically a desperate measure to get civilians out of a place where they’re either out of supplies or they’re in constant danger,” said Crystal Wells, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross. “But this often means that there’s a lot of people who are left behind. What happens if you’re bedridden, if you’re old, if you don’t really have an option to get out?”