The European Commission has recently announced that for 2024-2025, EU Member States will create a total of 61,000 new places dedicated to resettlement and humanitarian reception for individuals in urgent need of international protection.
Through a statement, the authority noted that such an initiative includes two key components: a commitment of 31,000 places for resettlement in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and an additional 30,000 places designated for humanitarian admission, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Since 2015, more than 119,000 vulnerable refugees have found protection in Europe through the EU’s resettlement schemes.
According to the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, there has been an increase in resettlement spots within the EU compared to previous years.
As a result, in 2022, about 17,300 individuals requiring international protection were resettled from non-EU countries. This marked a six per cent decrease from the numbers recorded in 2021. However, compared to the figures from 2020, there was a substantial 97 per cent increase in the number of people resettled.
Syrians constituted a significant portion, accounting for 63 per cent of relocated. Meanwhile, 175,000 individuals have been resettled in the EU or granted protection through humanitarian admission programs since 2015.
The Commission, recognising the urgency of the global resettlement needs, has designated these initiatives as a top priority. This commitment extends beyond the EU’s borders, as it actively collaborates with key international partners, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
To strengthen these efforts, the Commission has allocated a significant budget of €480 million for 2023-2025. This financial commitment aims to support EU Member States’ comprehensive
efforts towards humanitarian resettlement and admission. In particular, the Commission has already disbursed €246 million to Member States in 2023, targeting individuals admitted through resettlement and humanitarian admission over the past two years in particular.
Moreover, the EU Agency for Asylum (EUAA) is pivotal in advancing these objectives. The Resettlement Support Facility in Istanbul, under the purview of EUAA, is set to undergo expansion. Furthermore, the EUAA is working to establish additional operational support structures for resettlement in collaboration with other partner third countries.
Johansson further added that the EU also gave protection to more than four million Ukrainian refugees who have fled since Russia’s invasion in February last year.
The German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) recently revealed that following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Germany experienced net immigration of around one million people from Ukraine in 2022 and the first half of 2023.