Today, the Commission adopted its latest progress report on the EU’s emergency relocation and resettlement schemes, assessing actions taken over the past month. Since the last report, Member States have significantly increased their efforts on resettlement as part of the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement. The number of relocations has increased to 2,280, with the rate having almost doubled since the Commission’s third report on 18 May. Despite these positive signs, progress is still too slow. Action must be accelerated to avoid migrants returning to irregular routes.
Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos said: “As numbers of arrivals in Greece have gone down, the absolute onus now lies on significantly increasing and speeding up relocations. But we also cannot forget Italy, where the seasonal increase of arrivals is happening. This is a humanitarian obligation. At the same time, I commend the efforts made by Member States over the past months to resettle Syrian refugees from Turkey. Our progress in genuinely breaking the smugglers’ business model will only be sustainable if a safe and legal channel is really open for asylum seekers.”
Resettlement
The number of resettlements from Turkey under the EU-Turkey Statement has continued to increase and is expected to be even further strengthened in the coming months as Member States finalise their assessments of files referred to them by Turkey, via the UNHCR. Since 4 April 2016, 511 Syrians have been resettled from Turkey to the EU, including 330 since the last report, and the number of Member States actively participating in the scheme has increased. Since the last progress report, in addition to Finland, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden, resettlements have now also taken place to Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal.
Based on the information received from the participating States, 7,272 persons had been resettled by 10 June 2016 under the resettlement scheme of 20 July 2015, mainly from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. These people were received by 19 resettling States (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom).
Relocation
During the reporting period, 13 May to 14 June, the number of relocations increased and 780 additional persons were relocated, almost double the rate compared to the previous period. This brings the total number of persons relocated by 14 June to 2,280 (1,503 from Greece and 777 from Italy). Although this constitutes progress, it still falls far short of the Commission’s proposed target of relocating 6,000 people per month. Member States are far from complying with their commitment under the Council Decisions on relocation. The current monthly average of relocations from Greece is around 260-300 people. Moreover, the increase in relocations is largely due to greater efforts on the part of the Member States which were already the most active in the relocation scheme.
The number of relocation transfers and pledges in Italy remains particularly low in view of the increasing number of potential applicants for relocation arriving in Italy.
In Greece, around 49,000 asylum seekers and migrants are present in official temporary reception facilities on the mainland, waiting for registration and processing. With the financial support of the Commission and support on the ground from the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Greek asylum service launched a major pre-registration exercise on 8 June with the aim to pre-register 1,400 persons per day to accelerate the identification and full processing of relocation applicants. A significant number of additional asylum seekers will be ready for relocation within the following months – it is expected that between 60 and 65% of people pre-registered belong to one of the nationalities eligible for relocation.
In today’s report, the Commission acknowledges the efforts made by some Member States and urges all to put in place effective planning to increase pledges and relocation transfers in the coming six months. Reducing the response time on relocation requests is also a key element to successfully implement the relocation scheme. The security checks continue to lead to a significant slowdown of the response time, sometimes going beyond the two-month time-limit set out in the Council decision. The Commission also calls for all actors to step up the relocation of vulnerable persons, in particular unaccompanied minors.