Time to get resettlement moving!

Caritas Europa joins five major civil society organisations to urge the EU and its Member States to urgently revive resettlement efforts and make ambitious pledges for 2022 at the EU Resettlement Forum, on 9th July.

Resettlement is one of the few safe, legal pathways available for vulnerable refugees to reach the EU, and is a crucial protection tool additional to the right to asylum. Resettlement is also a concrete means to demonstrate global solidarity and responsibility-sharing towards low and middle income countries that host 86 percent of the world’s refugees.

The most recent global figures show that displacement has soared to 82.4 million. Last year, refugee resettlement plummeted to the lowest levels in decades – largely due to COVID-related travel restrictions and the limited number of places made available by states worldwide. Fewer than 35,000 refugees were resettled globally in 2020 – a decline of 69% on the year before. The EU’s member states (including the UK) resettled only 9,119 in total – falling far short of their commitment to welcome almost 30,000 people through this route in 2020, and representing just 0.6% of global needs. Their failure to make new pledges for 2021 has simply compounded this problem, leaving tens of thousands of vulnerable refugees trapped in limbo.

We’re calling on the EU and its member states to revive global leadership on resettlement, including by:

• Meeting their 2020 target of resettling 30,000 refugees by the end of 2021.
• Resettling at least 36,000 refugees in 2022 with a view to scaling this up further in the coming years.
• Providing a long-term, predictable and protection-oriented framework for EU resettlement by urgently adopting the Union Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Framework.

In addition to resettlement, we also encourage EU Membre states to financially and practically support complementary pathways such as community sponsorships and humanitarian and university corridors. Several of our members implement such programmes, that, if well designed, have the potential to foster welcoming communities and increase support and reception capacity.

Ironically, as we celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, asylum protection in Europe has been increasingly under threat. While developing countries are hosting almost 90% of the world’s refugees, EU Member States must urgently demonstrate global solidarity on refugee protection and step up resettlement – a crucial humanitarian option with the potential to provide a safe pathway for people in need of protection. In line with the ambitions in the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum to boost resettlement, we insist that EU states resettle at least 36,000 people in 2022, on top of the 2020 target. 1.47 million refugees are expected to be in need of resettlement next year and action is needed now!

Maria Nyman, Secretary General, Caritas Europa

The statement is co-signed by: International Rescue Committee, Caritas Europa, European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) Europe / SHARE Network, Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME), and the Red Cross EU Office.