ICMCEUROPE WelcometoEurope.pdf (5.89 MB)

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Chapter VII – Building a New Life in the Community
arrival of a group of Rohingya refugees.
The Committee produced a reception
schedule with allocated roles for all
partners, and facilitated the pooling
of resources between partners to fund
interpretation. 18 In Swedish municipalities,
informal coordination groups
of key local resettlement partners can
arrange to receive individual refugees
resettled on an emergency or urgent
basis, often within 1-2 days.
In both these examples, and in successful
local programmes elsewhere in
Europe, a single partner leads on coordinating
the local programme, maintaining
oversight of a central reception
plan, updating partners, suggesting
changes and acting as a single point of
local contact for national governments.
2.4. Approaches to reception -
centralised reception or direct
placement in local authorities
The ‘reception’ phase for resettled
refugees describes the period directly
following their arrival in the country
of resettlement. The length of the
reception phase is generally defined
by individual resettlement countries
within their national programmes, and
so varies from the first few weeks to
periods of up to 6 months after arrival.
18 Resettlement in smaller cities and municipalities
workshop, EU Resettlement Skills Share Day, 14-15
May 2012 at www.resettlement.eu
Titley, A., Carlow Rohingya Resettlement Programme
Evaluation Research Report, 2011
Resettlement programmes in Europe
generally take two distinct approaches
to reception. Several European resettlement
countries use a ‘centralised
reception’ system, in which resettled
refugees are initially received into an
accommodation facility where they stay
for a defined period before moving to
municipalities. In others, resettled refugees
move directly into independent
accommodation in a municipality
after arrival, in an approach referred
to as ‘direct reception’. Approaches to
reception in European resettlement
countries are shown below:
Centralised
reCeption
Belgium (6 weeks)
Czech Republic
(6-8 months)
Direct
reception in
municipalities
Denmark
Finland
Iceland
France (both approaches - 3-6 months)
Germany (7 days)
Ireland (8-12
weeks)
Portugal (3-6
months)
Romania (6
months-1 year)
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
UK
2.4.1. Centralised reception
Centralised reception is organised in
a number of different ways within
European resettlement programmes.