Joint EU Resettlement Programme: the health of refugee and humanitarian arrivals

Abstract

On 2 September 2009, the European Commission proposed the establishment of a Joint EU Resettlement Programme.1 The aim of the programme, led by an EU-wide Resettlement Expert Group, is to expand EU resettlement of refugees and humanitarian entrants, already determined by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to be in genuine need of international protection. In 2010, UNHCR estimates that around 747 000 persons worldwide are in need of resettlement.2 This number is increasing without corresponding growth in the number of available resettlement places.3 Further, host countries in the developing world, with limited resources, are overburdened and simply cannot integrate large numbers of refugees into their own expanding populace. The Joint EU Resettlement Programme therefore progresses the EU’s ‘greater solidarity’ to third countries that are overloaded, while improving coordination of EU external policies and credibility in international affairs more generally. The USA, Canada and Australia are the three major resettlement nations. Of the 65 850 refugees resettled worldwide in 2008, just 6.7% (4378) were resettled in 10 EU …