Brussels, 18/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - In a new report published on Wednesday 18 May, the European Commission was once again critical of member states' lethargy on relocating asylum seekers and resettling refugees.
Against the target set of 20,000 relocations by mid-May, barely 1,500 people have so far been relocated from Greece (999) and Italy (591) of the 106,000 that member states committed to relocate - only 355 more since publication of the previous Commission report on 16 March. “Relocation efforts were again made by only a few Member States and associated Schengen States”, says the Commission in its report.
Austria, which has been granted a temporary suspension of the relocation of up to 30% of the applicants allocated, Hungary and Slovakia have still not submitted any pledge. The 355 recently relocated persons went to France, the Netherlands, Latvia, Romania, Malta and the Czech Republic.
According to the latest information available, around 46,000 asylum seekers and migrants are in mainland Greece, awaiting processing. “Greece is facing a humanitarian crisis that requires swift action to enable large numbers of relocations”, the Commission makes clear. Greece is preparing “a major pre-registration exercise that will accelerate the identification and full registration of relocation applicants. After this exercise, a significant number of additional asylum seekers will be ready for relocation within the following months”, it says.
To speed up relocation, the Commission urges member states to put in place “effective planning to increase their pledges”, including stepping up the relocation of unaccompanied minors, and “reduce the response time on relocation requests”. It also calls on member states with large allocations to engage more actively in relocation. The countries concerned here are Spain, Germany and Poland. This group of countries, which also includes the Czech Republic, Croatia and the Netherlands, has so far pledged only 5% or less of their allocation.
177 Syrians resettled from Turkey in EU. By 13 May 2016, 6,321 people had been resettled in the EU. These people were received by 16 resettling states: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The number of resettlements from Turkey continues to increase: since 4 April 2016, 177 Syrians have been resettled. Sweden has received the largest number (55), followed by Germany (54), the Netherlands (52), Finland (11) and Lithuania (5). Around 2,000 resettlements are currently planned between May and July 2016, subject to a corresponding number of Syrians being returned from Greece under the 1: 1 scheme which lies at the heart of the EU-Turkey migration agreement of March (see EUROPE 11515).
The Commission notes that, since 12 April, only 2,581 people have arrived in Greece, a 75% reduction compared to the period covered in the previous report while, in Italy, 10,242 people have arrived since 12 April, showing a trend similar to the same period in 2015. An increased number of arrivals of Eritreans, including unaccompanied minors, has, however, been reported in the past weeks. Still with regard to Italy, the Commission warns member states about the weather conditions which, as they improve with the arrival of summer, could encourage greater traffic on the Central Mediterranean route. The Commission urges all member states, therefore, to provide their support. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)