At the beginning of September the European Commission proposed the establishment of a EU programme for resettling refugees. The Joint EU Resettlement Programme aims to develop resettlemennt within the EU into a more effective instrument to give protection to refugees, providing the closer political and practical cooperation among EU member States itself. This new Joint EU Programme concern the right of resettlement of refugees from third countries to an EU Member States*. Notably, the European Council on refugees and exiles defines resettlement as the transfer of refugees from a State in which they have sought asylum to a third State that has previously agreed to admit them as refugees and grant them a form of legal status, including access to civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights similar to those enjoyed by nationals, with the possibility of acquiring future citizenship. Resettlement is indeed a fundamental tool in international protection to meet the needs of refugees whose life, liberty and other human rights are at risk**.

Today there is an acute global resettlemnt need. The number of refugees worldwide is around 10 million and about 5% of them are in need of resettlement. In 2008 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) referred of more then 120,000 refugees for consideration by resettlement countries. In 2009 the UNHCR estimates that about 560,000 people globally will be in need of resettlement. If US, Canada and Australia provides the wider number of places annually, only ten EU countries run formal resettlement programmes***. Only a small part of people in need is therefore resettled to the EU: about 4,000 in 2007, only 4,378 in 2008.

Today, we have a low level of solidarity by the EU with third countries in receiving refugees (countries such as Italy and Spain don’t participate in resettlement). The efforts are too limited, given the scale of the global resettlement needs, this having a negative impact on the ambition of the EU to play a prominent role in global humanitarian affairs and on the influence of the EU in international forum****. EU can and above all should resettle more refugees, while all EU Member States should correctly undertake resettlement activities such as the new Joint Resettlement Programme, contributing thereby to a greater sharing of the global responsibility. Therefore, resettlement is economically beneficial for both the resettled refugee and the receiving country.

With the Joint Resettlement Programme the EU wants to achieve different objectives: to give support to the international protection of refugees and human rights; to ensure a greater solidarity with refugees; to ensure a wider participation of Member States in resettlement; to increase the strategic use of resettlement; to reinforce the international role of the EU.

Notes and References:

*EUROPA Press Releases, Stepping up efforts on resettlement of refugees, Brussels, 2 September 2009

**European Council on refugees and exiles (ECRE), Resettlement, http://www.ecre.org/topics/resettlement

***European Council on refugees and exiles (ECRE), Idem. The Member States which participate annually in resettlement are Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Ireland already for some years, while since 2007, with the support of the European Refugee Fund (ERF III), also Portugal, France, Romania and the Czech Republic

****Commission of the European Communities, communication on the establishment of a Joint EU Resettlement Programme and the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council, SEC (2009) 1128, Brussels, 7 September 2009

Massimo Corsini

For further informations and analyses: Center for African Law and Legislation Studies (CALLS)