Joint EU resettlement programme

The European Commission last Wednesday came forward with a proposal to establish a Joint European Resettlement Programme.

Resettlement means that a person who has acquired international protection, such as refugee status, in a country where he has sought shelter is transferred or resettled from that country to another where he is better able to live and settle properly. It is particularly useful in cases where the refugee cannot go back to his country of origin (that is why he is in refuge) and where his first country of refuge cannot, or finds it hard to host him on a long-term basis.

The EU resettlement programme is a first and would enable the resettlement of refugees from countries outside the EU to countries within the EU.

Thus, for example, Iraqi refugees in Jordan in very large numbers could be resettled in some EU countries as could, say, Sudanese refugees in Chad. Clearly, for us, the possibility of resettling asylum seekers in Libya to EU countries would be of particular interest.

In all these cases, the refugees had moved from their country of origin in search of refuge but, for one reason or another, were not able to integrate in the country of refuge and still less able to return home to their country of origin. It is for this category of people that resettlement is a useful option. It may come as a surprise to many but, to date, there is no common European resettlement programme established at EU level. And it is largely thanks to the insistence of countries like Malta that the idea of a European initiative on resettlement started being taken seriously.

Up to, say, a year ago, these kind of proposals were met with a deafening silence. Now the EU programme will, for the first time, take a European coordinated approach at offering EU help in such situations.

EU countries would be requested and encouraged to help by accepting to host and resettle refugees from outside the EU. However, the decision on whether to take refugees and how many to take will remain theirs alone.

Moreover, those countries that agree to host some refugees would be able to benefit from EU financial support amounting to €4,000 per person they resettle. The UNHCR would also be involved in the process, thereby making the issue of recognition of international protection easier.

Clearly, there would also be a role for the soon-to-be-established European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in running this programme.

Although a number of EU countries already receive refugees from outside the EU on a regular basis, less than half of them do so and those that do take a narrow national approach with no idea on what other European countries are doing, let alone coordination.

Instead, this programme would introduce a European level of coordination, thereby enabling EU countries to organise themselves better and be more effective in helping out refugees that are most in need.

There are three points to be clarified about this new initiative.

The first is that this programme is not intended to take refugees from Malta. But this does not mean that the pilot project to help Malta has been dropped. Indeed, this will be announced this month in a separate initiative that will be tailor-made for Malta and we shall certainly come back to this.

The second is that although this new programme will not take refugees from Malta it should still be of interest to us. This is because it may relieve pressure on Malta and other southern EU member states because it will make it possible, for the first time, for refugees to apply for resettlement from outside the EU without having to risk their lives in the dangerous crossing across the Mediterranean.

The third is that this proposal envisages only a "voluntary" commitment on the part of EU countries to accept refugees from outside the EU. This takes us back to the bitter political debate that we had over the past year, on whether such initiatives would be more effective if they were voluntary or compulsory in nature.

Well, here is an opportunity for us to answer this question from the other side.

Should Malta be legally obliged to accept refugees from outside the EU on a compulsory rather than voluntary basis? Or should we keep a flexible approach with individual member states deciding if and how many people they are willing to accept?

My view is that whether the commitment is voluntary or binding in nature is less important as long as the idea works in practice. Labels are all too easy in the political dialectic, but ultimately it is the results that count.

The Commission proposal for the establishment of a Joint EU Resettlement Programme will take the form of a legislative initiative and will come to Parliament.

Needless to say, I shall be following it closely.

Anyone who wishes to send me feedback on this initiative is most welcome to do so on, contact@simonbusuttil.eu.

For more information on the Joint EU Resettlement Programme one can go to ec.europa.eu/news/justice/090902_en.htm.

Readers who would like to ask questions to be answered in this column can send an e-mail, identifying themselves, to contact@simonbusuttil.eu or through www.simonbusuttil.eu.

Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.