Does the solidarity mechanism on “refugees” work? Which country welcomes Syrians?
(B2) The assessment of the actions undertaken by the Member States under the "migration/refugee" plan adopted last year is not glorious if we are to believe the last point drawn up by the European Commission, this Wednesday (January 13) .
1. Relocation (*) : only 272 people, who were in Italy and Greece, were received in the other Member States out of the figure of 160.000, set as a target in September by the 28. Admittedly, the target is spread over 2 years. But we got off to a bad start.
2. Resettlement (*) : At the end of last year, the Commission received confirmation for only 779 asylum seekers taken care of and resettled out of the 5331 people that member states had committed to take care of in 2015. States have set themselves a target of resettling a total of 22.504 Syrian asylum seekers by the end of 2017 (see box).
3. Hotspots (reception and sorting centres): out of the 5 hotspots identified in Greece, only 1 “is fully operational (Lesbos). On the 6 hotspots planned in Italy, 2 are operational to date (Lampedusa and Trapani).
4. The "Returns" (= evictions): LEurope has need to increase the rate of return of people who do not have the right to stay in Europe, to their countries of origin, by implementing the return action plan and making progress on readmission agreements and negotiations underlines the European Commission.
Commentary: it's a vicious circle! Hotspots must be fully operational to complete the relocation. The two States concerned are waiting for the relocation system to work, fearing the establishment of hotspots, attracting migrants and asylum seekers, and then finding themselves in an impossible situation to manage. Everyone believes that the rate of returns must be increased. But the countries of origin or transit are in no hurry to take back their nationals (assuming that the country of origin can be identified...).
(NGV)
(*) The relocation concerns the care within the European Union of asylum seekers or persons in need of international protection who have arrived in one of the member countries of the "front line", namely: Italy and Greece. Hungary refused to benefit from this mechanism. Sweden wishes to benefit from it.
La relocation concerns the same type of people who find themselves, outside the European Union, in the refugee camps managed by the UNHCR or the local authorities, in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey. This double effort aims essentially to take care of the Syrians, victims of the conflict, but also certain other nationalities victims of the conflicts. It is not a question of taking charge (normally) of economic migrants.
Who takes in Syrian refugees in Europe and elsewhere?
There are nearly 4,6 million Syrian refugees officially registered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today (as of the end of November 2015, *). The majority in neighboring countries. Turkey thus hosts more than 2 million refugees (Turkish Red Crescent figure), the Lebanon almost 1,1 million people (official figure, the reality seems closer to 1,4 million), the Jordan at least 600.000 people, theIraq almost 250.000 people (mainly in the autonomous region of Kurdistan **), theEgypt, about 120.000. etc
Europe - all countries combined - has welcomed since the beginning of the conflict, 814.000 people from Syria who have applied for asylum. The Balkan countries (essentially Serbia and Kosovo) provide a large share of the reception: just under 300.000 people. The European Union and the countries associated with the Schengen Area (Norway, Switzerland) received 525.000 asylum seekers.
A figure that is constantly increasing, which increased particularly from the summer of 2014, but accelerated significantly from the summer of 2015 throughout the European Union, and particularly in the autumn of 2015. The number of asylum applications thus reached (cumulatively) 317.000 applications in June, 369.000 applications in July (+ 51.000), 445.000 in August (+ 76.000), 540.000 in September (+ 95.000), 697.000 in October (+ 157.000), 814.000 in November (+ 117.000). NB: figure rounded down/up to the thousand
Within the European Union, the majority of these people (55%) are found in 2 countries: Germany and Sweden. 5 other countries (Hungary, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, Bulgaria) receive a good third of asylum applications (31%). The rest (14%) is spread throughout the European Union and associated. In other words: the effort is (very) unequally assumed. Hence the interest of a relocation mechanism that works well.
NB: these figures are based on the number of asylum applications. This does not mean that people have their request granted (high rejection rate in Hungary, for example) and are ultimately granted.
(*) figures provided by the UNHCR using summaries from other international organizations, as of November 30, 2015...
(**) as of December 30, 2015
Read our file No. 29. The migrant crisis became a refugee crisis, then a crisis period
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