Press Releases

WELCOME TO EUROPE!
ICMC Europe launches the publication ‘Welcome to Europe: A Guide to Resettlement’

Overview of European resettlement practices to accompany state and civil society in their efforts to increase resettlement as a durable solution.

The International Catholic Migration Commission recently published  Welcome to Europe: A Guide to Resettlement, which contains a comparative review of partnerships between governments and non-governmental organizations involved in resettlement of refugees in Europe.

The resettlement of refugees is perhaps the least known and most misunderstood of the durable solutions that offer protection to people who have fled persecution in their countries and who can neither return nor stay in the country to which they’ve fled.  In fact the actual number resettled in Europe every year is limited; some 5,500 only in 2007.

The Guide assembles on a comparative basis and for the first time most of the information on resettlement as it is practiced in Europe.  The guide includes recommendations on ways and methods to increase resettlement in Europe. “The many lessons learned by State and civil society across Europe,” says Petra Hueck, ICMC Europe Program officer, “will no doubt serve the purpose of a better understanding of this durable solution and facilitate programming of Member States and civil society involved in these processes.”  ICMC hopes this will contribute to the building of a Europe-wide resettlement network.    

The number of EU countries involved in resettlement as well as the number of resettlement places being provided do not respond to the actual needs. Humanitarian needs worldwide combined with the crisis of Iraqi displacement urgently call for more efforts in this field.  The recent interest shown by Belgium, France and several Central European countries is an encouraging sign that the number of resettlement countries will grow in the near future, but their efforts need to be defined in numbers.
 
ICMC has a longstanding expertise in resettlement, established over the past fifty-six years and including:  resettlement of displaced Europeans after the Second World War and administration of orderly departure programs for South Asian boat people; and currently as an Overseas Processing entity for the US Refugee Program and through the jointly administered UNHCR-ICMC Resettlement Deployment Scheme.

Copies of the handbook are available upon request.
To download the publication click here.
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For further information, please contact:  

Ms. Petra Hueck, ICMC Europe Program officer, at + 32 02 227 97 29; hueck@icmc.net, or
Ms. Emma Viaud, ICMC Head of Communications at + 41 022 919 10 27; viaud@icmc.net.

For stories from the field and related ICMC reports please click here.