“Protection” in relation to Refugees is a concept that has many different faces and has not been conclusively defined. It involves a number of actors and approaches and appropriate protection measures depend on the circumstances and stages of a particular situation facing refugees. According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2003 Global appeal the UNHCR’s International Protection function as derived from its statute and the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees has evolved and expanded from what began as a surrogate for consular and diplomatic protection to include ensuring basic rights of refugees and their physical safety and security.
The definition adopted at the 1999 International Confederation Of The Red Cross(ICRC) defines the concept of protection to encompass all activities aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with the letter and spirit of the relevant bodies of law; the human rights law, international law, refugees law.
Individual organizations and programmes have adopted their own understanding of protection to outline their activities. The InterAction Protection working group, which is made up of a number of non-governmental organizations has come to agreement that “protection” consists of ensuring the fulfillment of basic human rights and enabling human well-being particularly for vulnerable people, such as women, children and displaced people. Protection thus means and includes all the activities geared towards reducing physical, emotional and social risks; supporting emotional and social well being, providing equal access to basic services, and promoting the rights and dignity of individuals or community.
There are so many reason that can push people to become refugees. Terrorism is one of these reasons. Booth & Dume (2002) define terrorism as a method of political action that uses violence or deliberately produces fear against civilians and civilian infrastructure in order to influence behavior, to inflict punishment or to enact revenge (p 8).They further explain that the purpose of terrorists is to make the target group afraid of today, tomorrow and of each other. According to the Meriam Webster dictionary terrorism may be defined as the use of violent acts to frighten people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal.
In order to understand the challenges of refugee protection in the context of terrorism, it is vital to revisit the definition of a refugee. The term refugee as contained in the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to status of refugees and its 1967 protocol relating to status of refugees defines refugee as an individual who: ‘owing to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political affiliation, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable or owing to such fear is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.
The concept of refugees as people fleeing persecution is central to efforts to aid and protect them. They are victims of massive abuses of human rights. There are many challenges of refugee protection in the wake of terrorism. The 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees is key to refugee protection. The convention outlines the following rights of a refugee:

 Right not to be expelled except under certain strictly defined conditions
 Right not to be punished for illegal entry into a territory of a contracting state
 Right to work
 Right to housing
 Right to education
 Right to public relief
 Right to freedom of religion
 Right to access courts
 Right to movement within the territory
 Right to be issued with identification and travel documents
Since the September 11, US twin towers terrorists attacks as well as the 7/7 UK attacks, refugee protection has been greatly affected all over the world.
Various countries have come up with policies aimed at either limiting or prohibiting the entrance of refugees into their country.
The following are some of those measures taken that have greatly affected refugee protection in the world:
a) Regionalizing refugee protection
According to Wakahiu (2007) some countries have argued that refugees should be protected within the regions they are generated from instead of going to western countries (p 3).This would mean that a refugee from sub Saharan Africa should be protected in Africa and thus creating the impression that such a refugee may find it difficult to gain access to a place such as the UK.
Wakahiu (2007) also explains that in 2004, the United Kingdom had proposed that it would process all asylum claims outside the UK and also required asylum seekers to seek protection within their regions of origin before arriving in the UK (p 3).This would have meant that refugee camps outside the UK would have grown immensely as refugees wait for processing. The proposal was however rejected later.
b) Interception and return
According to Wakahiu (2007) some countries such the United States, Italy and Australia may intercept refugees at sea to prevent them from entering into their main land’s (p 4). Some countries have even been accused of deliberately sinking down ships carrying refugees to prevent them from getting into those countries.This kind of action therefore goes against the right in the 1951 convention on refugee status which provides that a refugee has a right not to be punished for illegal entry into a country which is a contracting party.
c) Detention of refugees
Some countries may hold refugees and asylum seekers for a prolonged period of time than is expected. Some of these holding centres have been opposed by human rights groups on the basis that they limit a person’s general freedom.
According to Fullerton (2010), immigration authorities in the US rolled out an initiative called operation liberty shield. The purpose of the operation was to detain all asylum seekers from nations where Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are known to have operated. The detention would be during the entire processing period (p 8).This would mean that if processing took more than 6 months, one would be in detention during those six months awaiting completion of processing.
d) Forceful relocation to refugee camps
This involves forcing all refugees living in the urban areas to go back to the refugee camp. The situation almost arose in Kenya in 2012 and the recent Garissa university attack which has led to a proposal to shut down the Daadab refugee camp. According to Raddatz (2013) the Kenyan government in December 2012 ordered that all refugees and asylum seekers living in urban areas such as Nairobi to immediately relocate back to refugee camps. In addition all registration centers for refugees were to be shut down (p 3). This came in the advent of numerous terror attacks across the country. Such a decision was seen to greatly be against the rights and freedoms of a refugee. It was however overruled by the Kenyan High Court.
Measures taken by bodies such as UNHCR in the protection of refugees based on terrorism
The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) has taken various measures to ensure the social protection of refugees. The following are some of the measures:
a) Voluntary repatriation of refugees
UNHCR encourages refugees to return back to their home countries once the circumstances back there permit. It provides material support for returnees in form of cash grants, farm implements and income generating activities. In 2013 for example UNHCR supported voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees.
b) Refugee resettlement
This has proved to be an effective method of protection of refugees. it represents an important means of sharing responsibility for the global refugee problem.
c) Assisting in local integration and resettlement
UNHCR helps refugees who are unable to go back to their home countries to find new homes in their refugee host country or in a third country where they can permanently resettle. UNHCR works hand in hand with bodies such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to facilitate resettlement as well as pre-departure orientation.

REFERENCES
Booth K & Dume .T. (2002). Worlds in collision. In B.Kent & D.Tim (E.d), “Worlds In collision, terror & future of global terror.”New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fullertor.M .(2010) Terrorism, torture and refugee protection in the US,209(1).Retrieved April 5 2015 from www.researchgate.net/terrorism-refugeeprotection/oob4953(009)
Raddatz.R. (2013).The moved and the shaken; how forced relocation affects the lives of urban refugee women and girls. Nairobi: Heshima Kenya
UNHCR.Protecting refugees and the role of UNHCR.Retrieved April 5 2015 from www.unhcr.org.au/unhcr/images/protecting%20refugees%20and%20the%role20of%20of%20unhcr.pdf
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 protocol. Retrieved April 5 2015 from www.unhcr,org/4ec262df9.pdf
Wakahiu.J (2007).Refugee protection: the challenges from interventionist and terrorism concerns. Retrieved April 5 2015 from www.rckkenya.org/rokdownloads/docs/refugee%20protection%20the%20challenges%20from%20intervention.pdf www.meriamwebster.com/dictionary/terrorism www.dictionary.reference.com/browse/terrorism