ICMCEUROPE WelcometoEurope.pdf (5.89 MB)

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Chapter V - Resettlement in Europe: Rising Slowly but Surely
financial envelope 17 is allocated to
the implementation of RPPs. The RPP
resettlement component is stimulated
by the European Refugee Fund (ERF),
which lists resettlement activities for
‘persons from a country or region designated
for the implementation of an
RPP’ as a category for which Member
States can receive financial support
(see 6.2, below). 18
A 2009 external evaluation assessed
both the general concept of the
RPPs and the two pilot RPPs targeted
at Eastern Europe (WNIS) and
in the Great Lakes Region (Tanzania).
The study concluded that a very
small number of refugees had been
resettled in Member States within the
framework of RPPs, that RPPs had suffered
through a lack of coordination
between EU Directorate Generals 19
and that the concept of RPPs was generally
not visible or well understood in
the beneficiary countries. 20
17 Thematic Programme ‘Cooperation with Third
Countries in the areas of Migration and Asylum’
- 2011-2013 Multi-Annual Strategy Paper. The
indicative budget for 2011-2013 for the Thematic
Programme for cooperation with third countries in
the areas of migration and asylum is 179 million. 53
million is allocated to ‘targeted thematic priorities’.
18 Decision No 573/2007/EC of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 23 May 2007
establishing the European Refugee Fund for the
period 2008 to 2013 (called: ERF III) as part of the
General programme Solidarity and Management
of Migration Flows and repealing Council Decision
2004/904/EC, hereafter referred to as the ‘ERF III
Decision’
19 DG Development and Cooperation (EuropeAid), DG
Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) and
European External Action Service (EEAS)
20 European Commission, Evaluation of Pilot Regional
Protection Programmes, 2009
Under the proposed Multiannual
Financial Framework (MFF) 2014-20,
funding for RPP programmes and their
resettlement component will be maintained
(AMF - see 8.1, below). 21 The
fact that a country resettles from a
RPP region does not necessarily mean
that resettlement is carried out in the
framework of an RPP.
Five RPPs have been implemented
since 2004, all of which are still ongoing
at the time of writing. Resettlement
accounted for a relatively small part
of the durable solutions provided to
refugees in these contexts, as detailed
below.
4.1. RPP in Tanzania and
the Great Lakes Region
(2004-present)
Implemented by UNHCR, the RPP in
Tanzania and the Great Lakes Region
mainly focuses on local integration
through naturalisation and voluntary
repatriation. 22 During 2004-8, 434
refugees were resettled under the
RPP to seven EU Member States
(Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland,
the Netherlands, Sweden and the
UK). The majority of these (61%) were
resettled to the Netherlands. The
21 See article 7, 17, 21 of the Proposal for a regulation
of the European Parliament and the Council
establishing the Asylum and Migration Fund, 15
November 2011 (hereafter referred to as the AMF
draft regulation )
22 Since 2002, UNHCR has assisted in the voluntary
repatriation and local integration of 417,000
Burundian refugees.