In a hearing of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties and Home Affairs Committee on the proposed regulation this afternoon, Malin Björk, will describe the elements of the regulation that are essential to its success:       

“Resettlement is one of the most important legal pathways for refugees. The resettlement proposal is the only one of all the tabled proposals that defines a legal pathway to enter the EU in which refugees can receive protection and build a future. This is why this proposal is so important, and why it is so important to get it right.”

“The proposal should be based on the positive experiences of resettlement programmes, on the principles and prerequisites that are defined in international asylum law. Furthermore, it should be based on the work carried out by organisations such as the UNCHR and NGOs.

“An EU resettlement scheme should also lead to an increase in the total number of resettled refugees within the EU. This must be one of the most basic purposes of such a proposal. Otherwise, the whole point of this proposal will be lost.

“Lastly, but extremely importantly, a resettlement programme cannot and must not become a tool for migration control. That would break the whole concept and the direction of the work with resettlement as it has been built up for decades,” Björk concluded.

 

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