ICMCEUROPE WelcometoEurope.pdf (5.89 MB)

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Chapter V - Resettlement in Europe: Rising Slowly but Surely
of international protection (including
mutual recognition of asylum decisions)
by 2014. 61
It remains clear that a limited number
of Member States continue to receive
the vast majority of asylum seekers
coming to Europe. Those at the border
of the EU such as Cyprus, Malta,
Greece and Italy, continue to struggle
to manage refugee movements while
simultaneously dealing with the effects
of the current financial crisis. As is, the
current EU asylum framework does
not adequately address these disparities
among Member States, which in
the future may need to be addressed
outside the current Dublin Regulation 62
and by mechanisms for resettlement
and relocation in which at least a
minimum level of Member State participation
is obligatory.
7.2. Relocation and resettlement:
competing instruments?
Both EUREMA projects have benefited
from ERF funding, and the
funding mechanism that applies to
relocation is very similar to that formulated
for resettlement. Both are
61 European Parliament, Resolution on enhanced
intra-EU solidarity in the field of asylum, 11
September 2012
62 Council regulation (EC) No 343/2003 of 18 February
2003, known as the Dublin II Regulation, aims to
determine the member state responsible for examining
an asylum application. According to Article
5(2) of the Regulation, the member state responsible
in accordance with the criteria shall be determined
on the basis of the situation obtaining when
the asylum seeker first lodged his application with a
member state .
voluntary schemes that operate with
lump sums (€4,000) for each person
being resettled or relocated, resulting
in two competing instruments operating
in parallel. Indeed, traditional
resettlement countries such as Finland
and Sweden have explicitly questioned
if relocation comes at the expense of
resettlement. 63 In some cases, places
for relocated refugees have been
included within national refugee resettlement
quotas, directly bearing out
these concerns.
In its proposal on the Asylum and
Migration Fund (AMF) 2014-20 64 (see
9.1, below), the European Commission
has created the possibility for the EU to
co-finance relocation activities within
a system of financial incentives similar
to those in place within the Joint EU
Resettlement Programme. Member
States would receive financial incentives
in the form of a lump sum of
€6,000 for each relocated person.
Similarly to its role in relation to
resettlement, the European Asylum
Support Office (See section 8) assists
Member States in ‘promoting, facilitating
and coordinating exchanges
of information and other activities
63 Migration Policy Centre, Between Solidarity and the
Priority to Protect Where Refugee Relocation meets
Refugee Resettlement, 2013
64 European Commission, Communication from
the Commission to the European Parliament,
the Council, the European Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions
Building an open and secure Europe: the home
affairs budget for 2014-2020, 15 November 2011