Annexes to COM(2016)636 - Sixth report on relocation and resettlement - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2016)636 - Sixth report on relocation and resettlement. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2016)636  |
| date | September 28, 2016 |
Actions to address challenges related to the relocation of vulnerable applicants and unaccompanied minors: No unaccompanied minor has been relocated yet from Italy. Implementing the procedure is a key priority as almost 3,000 unaccompanied minors potentially eligible for relocation (most from Eritrea) have disembarked in Italy this year. After Italy's announcement to start a pilot relocation exercise for unaccompanied minors, a number of Member States showed interest. To swiftly implement this pilot and more largely the relocation of unaccompanied minors, Italy should designate one or more dedicated Hubs for potentially eligible candidates, where EASO could be deployed and assist.
Actions to limit secondary movements: As part of actions taken by the Italian authorities to limit secondary movements, the Italian police is regularly transferring migrants who moved irregularly from the South to the North of the country, back to the reception facilities in the South of the country. To better inform potential applicants about the relocation scheme, discussions are currently taking place on possible deployment of additional EASO teams in areas where an important number of applicants who could be eligible for relocation, in particular Eritreans, are present. The presence and movements of irregular migrants on Italian territory should be closely monitored, and irregular secondary movements prevented.
2.4Actions by the Commission and EU agencies
• European Commission
The Commission has continued supporting Italy and Greece on the ground on a day to day basis, helping with the coordination among various stakeholders and assisting the Greek and Italian authorities in trouble shooting, quick problem solving and in procedure development. As part of this support, the Liaison Officers meeting in Athens on 13 September served to discuss the results of the pre-registration exercise and planned with the Greek authorities and the Member States of relocation the way forward, including identifying those Member States that would be ready to accept unaccompanied minors. The ad-hoc meeting of National Contact Points for relocation held in Italy on 15 September, and co-chaired with the Italian authorities, served to find solutions to the main bottlenecks slowing down relocation in Italy, particularly security-related issues. The Commission is also in constant contact with the Member States of relocation to identify on a bilateral basis possible obstacles in the relocation procedure and propose solutions.
The Commission has continued providing substantial funding to Greece to support the country in its efforts to bring its migration and asylum management system up to EU standards. During the reporting period, approximately EUR 90 million were directly awarded to the Greek authorities to strengthen the country's capacities to improve living conditions and provide primary healthcare services at refugee accommodation centres, as well as to provide reception and healthcare services to the migrants. With this latest funding, the Commission has awarded to Greece, since the beginning of 2015, a total of EUR 352 million in emergency assistance 35 from Home Affairs Funds (Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, AMIF, and Internal Security Fund, ISF), either directly to the Greek authorities or through EU agencies and international organisations operating in the country. This emergency funding comes on top of the EUR 509 million already allocated to Greece under the national programmes for 2014-2020 (EUR 294.5 million from AMIF and EUR 214.7 million from ISF). Substantial funding (approximately EUR 198 million), aiming at covering the migrants' and refugees' basic humanitarian needs, is also being provided to humanitarian partner organisations, through the recently created Emergency Support Instrument.
Funding has also been provided to the Italian authorities to support their efforts to manage the increased number of migrants/asylum seekers reaching the country. During the reporting period, the Commission awarded the Italian Coast Guard and the Italian Navy a total of EUR 3.2 million under the emergency assistance strand of the ISF. To date, Italy has been granted EUR 23.5 million emergency assistance by the Commission under AMIF and ISF combined. This amount adds up to EUR 592.6 million allocated to Italy under the AMIF (EUR 347.7 million) and ISF (EUR 244.9 million) national programmes.
As part of its monitoring of the implementation of the Council Decisions on relocation, the Commission raised and will continue to raise concerns with those Member States that are falling behind in implementing the Council Decisions.
• European Asylum Support Office
Actions to speed up the relocation process and increase the registration capacity in Greece and Italy: Experts are deployed in a number of functions. In Greece, 20 experts currently support the registration process directly through joint processing. 7 other experts are involved in information provision, managing two hotlines and providing information regarding registation, relocation and Dublin procedures. Based on the recommendations on how to enhance the matching process, aimed at matching applicants to specific Member States, EASO has prepared an action plan to start implementation in October.
Following the pre-registration exercise the Greek Asylum Service is working towards reinforcing its registration capacity. EASO will diversify its support to the relocation procedure and include more experts on vulnerability assessment, best interest of the child assessment, exclusion indicators, Dublin Regulation, family unit and document fraud. These experts will function as an escalation desk for difficult cases which will help decongest the regular registration process and safeguard the quality of the relocation files. Reinforced support throughout the various steps of the relocation procedure, from information provision, to registration and the matching process remains needed. EASO is procuring mobile offices for Thessaloniki in order to further increase the registration capacity.
From 11 to 15 July, a delegation representing the Management Board of EASO conducted a gap analysis mission on relocation from Greece. The delegation concluded that relocation functions well and made a number of recommendations which are in line with those included in this and previous reports. EASO will monitor the follow-up to other recommendations of a more short-term, detailed and practical nature.
In Italy, EASO is currently deploying 33 out of the 74 requested experts from Member States and associated countries: 10 experts in the hotspots, 8 experts in two mobile teams (based in Rome and Catania), 11 experts in registration Hubs, and 4 experts in the Dublin Unit in Rome. EASO is also deploying up to 48 cultural mediators (for Arabic, Tigrinya and Kurdish) to support the relocation process (as of 27 September, 35 cultural mediators are deployed on the ground).
3Resettlement
Based on the information received from the participating States, 10,695 people have been resettled in the period until 26 September 2016 in the framework of the resettlement scheme of 20 July 2015 to 21 resettling States (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). A little over a year since the scheme has been launched, Sweden and the United Kingdom are the first Member States to have fulfilled their pledges of 491 and 2,200 resettled persons in need of international protection, respectively. Associated states Switzerland and Liechtenstein had already fulfilled their respective pledges earlier.
A majority of States participating in the scheme indicated that their resettlement efforts were primarily, but not exclusively, directed at Syrians staying in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. This includes efforts from Member States to resettle Syrians from Turkey under the EU-Turkey Statement of 18 March.
The number of resettlements from Turkey continues to increase as Member States finalise their assessments of files referred to them by Turkey via UNHCR. Since 4 April 2016, 1,614 Syrians have been resettled from Turkey under the resettlement part of the 1:1 scheme. An increased number of Member States are also actively participating in the scheme. Since the last progress report, in addition to Finland, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, resettlement has also taken place to Belgium, Estonia and France.
The EU-Turkey Statement of 18 March foresees the activation of the Voluntary Humanitarian Admission Scheme with Turkey, once irregular crossings between Turkey and the EU were ending or at least had substantially and sustainably reduced. Standard Operating Procedures for the scheme are currently being developed in the Council in close cooperation between the Commission, EASO, UNHCR and IOM. Negotiations on the text that was shared with Turkey on 28 June are ongoing and further exchanges with Member States and Turkey will take place in order to finalise it.
Discussions have continued on the Commission's proposal amending Council Decision (EU) 2015/1601 to allow Member States to meet their relocation obligations for the unallocated 54,000 places by admitting to their territory Syrian nationals in clear need of international protection present in Turkey through resettlement or other forms of legal admission. The Council has reached a general approach with minimal changes on 21 September, while the European Parliament voted on its opinion on 15 September 2016. It is now expected that the Council will adopt the proposal in the coming days.
The Commission on 13 July adopted a proposal for a regulation establishing a Union Resettlement Framework 36 to establish a common European policy on resettlement and ensure orderly and safe arrival to Europe for people in need of international protection. The text is currently being examined by the co-legislators.
4Way forward
As stressed by President Juncker in his State of the Union speech, solidarity is the glue that keeps the Union together and is often most readily shown when faced with emergencies. Greece and Italy still face an emergency situation that requires the continued expression of solidarity from all Member States.
Heads of State or Government have repeatedly recognised in different fora the urgency of the situation and have called for further action to accelerate the implementation of the relocation scheme as an essential expression of this solidarity.
The Commission acknowledges that significant efforts have been made, which are reflected in the gradually increasing rate of relocation, notably in the case of Greece. Greece has successfully finalised a complex pre-registration exercise that has helped persons in the mainland seeking international protection be identified. Now Greece is taking the necessary steps to ensure the swift processing of relocation applicants within four to five months. Italy has continued to increase its processing capacity and showed flexibility to the demands of the Member States of relocation regarding security issues. UNHCR, IOM, EASO, Frontex and Europol are all increasing their support to Italy and Greece to accelerate the relocation procedure. Some Member States are truly committed to relocation and significantly contributed to the positive trends observed in the last months.
However, the results achieved do not yet measure up to the commitments taken and the scale of the challenges faced. The calls made by the Heads of State or Government must be matched with determined action now by the competent national services on the ground.
The Commission considered in its First Report on Relocation and Resettlement 37 that at least 6,000 relocations should be completed per month. This target remains valid as the Council Decisions on relocation enter their second year of implementation. Meeting legal obligations under the Council Decisions will require a substantial increase in the number and regularity of pledges and an acceleration in relocation in the coming months. The Commission therefore urges Member States to fully comply with these obligations.
To that end, the Commission calls on Member States to pledge and relocate regularly in accordance with their allocation both from Italy and Greece, and to nominate experts to respond to EASO’s various calls ensuring longer deployments and more senior and specialised profiles. Those Member States who have not yet made any pledges, or have not yet relocated anyone, should do so without delay.
For their part, Greece and Italy should continue increasing their processing capacity. Greece should also establish as soon as possible the remaining relocation centres and Italy implement the first relocations of unaccompanied minors.
The Commission will continue to closely monitor and report regularly on the implementation of the two Council Decisions on relocation. The Commission reserves the right to take action against those Member States not complying with their obligations.
In parallel, Member States should continue delivering on their resettlement commitments, including as part of the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement. 38
(1)
Although the overall target of the relocation scheme is 160,000 persons, 54,000 were not allocated to a specific beneficiary Member State under the second Council Decision on Relocation. According to Article 4(2) of the second Council Decision, the allocation of this remaining number was to be decided at a later stage. A Commission proposal allowing use of this quota for the purpose of resettlement should be adopted by the Council shortly (see below section 4).
(2)
European Council Conclusions of 28 June 2016. http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/06/28-euco-conclusions/
(3)
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/09/16-bratislava-declaration-and-roadmap/
(4)
SN 38/16, 18.03.2016.
(5)
COM(2016) 480 final.
(6)
Irregular border crossings in Greece from 13 July until 25 September - Source Frontex, as reported in JORA (Joint Operations Reporting Applications). Data may be subject to changes after validation.
(7)
Source: Greece authorities and UNHCR.
(8)
Taking into account relocations expected on 28 September.
(9)
http://asylo.gov.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Preregistration-data_template_5_EN_EXTERNAL.pdf .
(10)
According to the latest quarterly report (Quarter 2 2016) published by Eurostat on 22 September, the nationalities eligible for relocation are Syria, Eritrea, Burundi, Mozambique, Bahrain, Bhutan, Qatar and Yemen. The nationalities, which met the 75% eligibility threshold according to the Eurostat data from quarter 1 of 2016, that do not meet this threshold anymore, are Central African Republic, Seychelles, Dominica, Laos and Saudi Arabia. As mentioned in the previous report, although Iraqis are no longer eligible for relocation, this does not affect those Iraqis already identified as persons in possible need for international protection (thus, those pre-registered can still be relocated). This would also apply to applicants belonging to the other nationalities that are no longer eligible for relocation.
(11)
At the end of August, no open pledges were available for the Greek Asylum Service to send new relocation requests to Member States. By 29 August, the Greek Asylum Service had registered around 11,130 relocation requests while total number of pledges were around 8,000 all of which were being processed by the Member States of relocation (awaiting a reply by the Member State of relocation) or already implemented (the transfer has been executed or the applicant had been rejected).
(12)
The number of irregular border crossings in Italy from 13 July until 25 September as reported in JORA (Joint Operations Reporting Applications) and collected in the frame of the Joint Operation Triton 2016. Data may be subject to changes after validation.
(13)
http://asylo.gov.gr/en/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Preregistration-data_template_5_EN_EXTERNAL.pdf.
(14)
63 to Belgium, 10 to Croatia, 7 to Cyprus, 8 to Czech Republic, 22 to Estonia, 213 to Finland, 911 to France, 158 to Germany, 31 to Ireland, 29 to Latvia, 52 to Lithuania, 33 to Luxembourg, 306 to the Netherlands, 70 to Portugal, 128 to Romania, 3 to Slovakia, 32 to Slovenia and 166 to Spain.
(15)
80 to Finland, 50 to France, 6 to Latvia, 20 to Luxembourg, 9 to Malta, 53 to Portugal, 33 to the Netherlands, 6 to Romania, 8 to Slovenia, 10 to Spain and 78 to Switzerland.
(16)
All for 28 September: 15 to Bulgaria, 35 to France, 27 to Portugal and 31 to Spain.
(17)
67 to Finland. Transfers to France, the Netherlands and Switzerland are also planned.
(18)
12 to Latvia and 110 to Romania from Greece and 6 to Malta and 6 to Croatia from Italy.
(19)
Belgium 200 for Greece and 100 for Italy, Bulgaria 50 for Greece, Croatia 6 to Italy, Estonia 35 for Greece, Finland 150 for Greece, France 800 for Greece and 50 for Italy, Germany 500 for Greece and 500 for Italy, Ireland 123 for Greece, Latvia 60 for Greece and Latvia 45, Lithuania 80 for Greece and 20 for Italy, Luxembourg 60 for Greece and 40 for Italy, Malta 30 for Italy, the Netherlands 300 for Greece and 100 for Italy, Portugal 400 for Greece, Romania 247 for Greece and 70 for Italy, Slovakia 10 for Greece and Slovenia 40 for Greece and 10 to Italy.
(20)
Liechtenstein 10 for Greece, Norway 20 for Greece and 80 for Italy, and Switzerland 330 for Italy.
(21)
In accordance with Council Decision 2016/408 of 10 March 2016, Austria benefits from a temporary suspension of the relocation of up to 30% of applicants allocated to Austria under Council Decision (EU) 2015/1601. As a consequence, the relocation to Austria of 1 065 applicants shall be suspended until 11 March 2017. However, the obligations under Decision 2015/1601 continue to apply to Austria in respect of the relocation of the remaining allocation, so pledges and relocations are still required.
(22)
In early April, Poland suspended the processing of 73 relocation requests that the Greek Asylum Service sent to Poland on the basis of a pledge that Poland submitted on 16 December 2015 thus de facto freezing the relocation procedure three and a half months after the submission of the pledge. The same applies to requests from Italy.
(23)
It is likely that the reduction in numbers is caused by minors who exited Greece through the Western Balkans route earlier in 2016.
(24)
EASO's fifth call for experts to support relocation in Greece was launched on 21 April and was first reported in the 3rd Report on Relocation and Resettlement. The term of deployment of several experts ended during the reporting period.
(25)
Austria, Switzerland, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Romania, Germany, Latvia, Spain, France, Croatia, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Malta, Belgium, Slovakia and Bulgaria.
(26)
The roving team performs registration for relocation in various locations where candidates for relocation are accommodated (based on needs indicated by the Italian authorities) and supports the local Questura stakeholders in performing registrations themselves.
(27)
Those who have not been able to pre-register and wish to apply for international protection would be able to do so by obtaining a registration appointment through Skype. Given than the vast majority of those who wish to apply for international protection have been pre-registered, it is expected that the Skype system would function more efficiently and on a subsidiary basis.
(28)
This figure does not include the places provided under the UNHCR rental scheme capacity and the reception places at the hotspots.
http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/documents.php?page=1&view=grid&Country[]=83
These temporary emergency and permanent facilities are established on the Aegean islands in the hotspots as well as on the mainland. As of 11 July 2016, there are currently only 1,138 permanent accommodation places that exclusively host applicants for international protection and unaccompanied minors.
(29)
Commission Recommendation addressed to the Hellenic Republic on the specific urgent measures to be taken by Greece in view of the resumption of transfers under Regulation (EU) No. 604/2013, C(2016) 3805.
(30)
The Delegation Agreement reached with UNHCR for the 20,000 places rental scheme in January 2016 primarily benefits asylum seekers eligible for relocation. The Delegation Agreement was revised in July 2016 in order to make it clearer in the text that the accommodation scheme includes also the possibility to establish places in relocation sites managed by UNHCR, and that the target group of the accommodation scheme includes not only relocation candidates but also other asylum seekers. UNHCR agreed to make 6,000 places from the rental scheme available to relocation centres to accommodate all fully registered relocation applicants.
(31)
That is namely the involvement of EU agencies (EASO, Frontex, Europol)
(32)
http://www.libertaciviliimmigrazione.dlci.interno.gov.it/sites/default/files/allegati/hotspots_sops_-_english_version.pdf
(33)
Available here:
http://www.libertaciviliimmigrazione.dlci.interno.gov.it/sites/default/files/allegati/hotspots_sops_-_english_version.pdf
(34)
COM(2016) 416 final.
(35)
This emergency assistance comes on top of the EUR 509 million allocated to Greece for the period 2014-2020 through its national programmes under the Home Affairs Funds (AMIF and ISF), where substantial funding is also available to support the implementation of asylum policies.
(36)
COM(2016) 468 final.
(37)
COM(2016) 165 final.
(38)
Third Report on the Progress made in the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement, COM(2016) 634 .