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UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is issuing the following recommendations ahead of the 1 July meeting hosted by the European Commission. The meeting brings together Member States and key actors to discuss and launch the 2023-2025 pledging exercise for resettlement and humanitarian admission. The recommendations set out UNHCRs key asks to EU Members States and relevant European Union (EU) institutions as they consider their commitments to resettling and admitting refugees through complementary pathways in 2023.

UNHCRs recommendations are in line with the Three-Year Strategy (2019-2021) on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways(the Strategy), the Third Country Solutions for Refugees: Roadmap 2030 (Roadmap 2030),1 and the objective set out in the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) to increase the number of resettlement and complementary pathways admissions globally. The Strategy foresees the resettlement of one million refugees and admission of two million refugees through complementary pathways by 2028.

In the last two years, EU Member States have shown their capacity to respond to a series of challenges by working together and demonstrating solidarity. Despite the important impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on resettlement and complementary pathway admissions of refugees, EU Member States have remained engaged with UNHCR and other partners to find ways to ensure admissions. The EU stepped up following the events in Afghanistan in August 2021 and received tens of thousands of Afghan nationals evacuated from their country in addition to commitments for resettlement and other admission programmes to receive Afghan refugees from neighbouring countries.Since February 2022, the war in Ukraine has forced millions of people to flee, becoming the largest refugee emergency since the end of World War II. From the onset of the emergency, EU Member States demonstrated remarkable solidarity with an unanimous decision to activate the Temporary Protection Directive providing protection, access to rights and assistance to millions of people. The EU has demonstrated its capacity to work together, providing emergency assistance in a very short period of time, and with an unprecedented mobilization of receiving authorities and host communities.The Projected Global Resettlement Needs increased from 1,47 million in 2022 to more than 2 million for 2023. In this context, UNHCR urges Member States to maintain their commitments to refugees and provide solutions to those most at risk, and calls on the EU to:

MAINTAIN AMBITIOUS TARGETS FOR SUFFICIENT RESETTLEMENT ADMISSIONS OF REFUGEES IN NEED

Maintain ambitious targets: while UNHCR acknowledges the great pressure in the past few months with the Ukraine emergency, it is essential to pursue the solidarity efforts and commitments to refugees worldwide. UNHCR recommends that the 27 EU Member States maintain ambitious resettlement targets, and resettle at least 40,000 refugees in 2023, in addition to a minimum of 8,500 places for Afghan refugees to keep pace with a five-year target of 42,500 resettlement departures.

Ensure the incremental growth of resettlement as envisaged in the Strategy with EU targets increasing to a minimum of 44,000 in 2024 and 48,000 in 2025, in addition to an average of 8,500 places per year over the next five years in order to respond to the needs of Afghan refugees.

Adopt flexible case processing modalities to increase the agility and resilience of resettlement and admissions under other legal pathways.

Increase the number of EU Member States participating in resettlement: UNHCR is ready to support capacity building initiatives and work together with partners such as the EU Agency for Asylum (EUAA), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and NGOs to meet this objective.

Increase EU funding for capacity building initiatives, including through the CRISP2 initiative to build solid and quality resettlement programmes and to advance complementary pathways.

See the article here:
Summary of UNHCR Recommendations to the European Union: UNHCR resettlement needs, complementary pathways, and key priorities for 2023 (June 2022) -...