EC press releases and reports on relocation and resettlement, steps to restore Dublin transfers to Greece and the EU-Turkey statement

On 15 June 2016, the European Commission reports on progress made in the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement, adopted a progress report on the relocation and resettlement schemes, adopted its second recommendation identifying steps to restore Dublin transfers to Greece

 

Relocation and Resettlement: Increased efforts on resettlement and
relocation must be sustained

Resettlement
The number of resettlements from Turkey under the EU-Turkey Statement has continued to increase and is expected to be even further strengthened in the coming months as Member States finalise their assessments of files referred to them by Turkey, via the UNHCR. Based on the information received from the participating States, 7,272 persons had been resettled by 10 June 2016 under the resettlement scheme of 20 July 2015, mainly from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. These people were received by 19 resettling States (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom).

Relocation
The total number of persons relocated by 14 June was 2,280 (1,503 from Greece and 777 from Italy). Although this constitutes progress, it still falls far short of the Commission's proposed target of relocating 6,000 people per month. Member States are far from complying with their commitment under the Council Decisions on relocation.

 

Managing the Refugee Crisis: Commission reports on progress made in the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement

The Commission adopted its second report on the EU-Turkey Statement showing that while there has been further good progress in its implementation, progress achieved so far remains fragile. The continued successful implementation depends mainly on the political determination of all parties involved. The sharp and continued decrease of people crossing irregularly or losing their lives in the Aegean on their way from Turkey into Greece is proof of the Statement's effectiveness so far and also shows that the business model of smugglers can be broken. Member States have also increased their efforts on resettlement – offering legal and safe pathways as an alternative. Return operations have continued to be carried out. All Member States have sent their contribution certificates for the Facility for Refugees in Turkey which will allow for the accelerated disbursement of the Facility to be delivered and the first €1 billion to start benefiting refugees by the end of the summer.

 

Commission adopts second Recommendation identifying steps to restore Dublin transfers to Greece

The Recommendation notes that despite the difficult situation Greece is confronted with, it has made continuous efforts in improving its asylum system since the first recommendation adopted in February, including increasing the overall reception capacity as well as the capacity of the asylum service, setting-up a framework for free legal aid and new appeal authorities. However, there is still a significant amount of progress to be achieved before Dublin transfers to Greece can be resumed by the end-of-year objective.

Publicatiedatum: wo 15 jun 2016
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