Only 207 Refugees Relocated Through the “Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism” up to This Point
According to a recent report of the non-profit organisation, Statewatch, an internal Commission paper noted that the entire scheme risks being in jeopardy after a failure by the bloc’s countries to accept people for relocation, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
Such comments came following the meeting of the “Solidarity Platform Pact” which was introduced in order to coordinate the process of relocation.
In the meeting, it was emphasised that among the obstacles that remain to be addressed is the need to ensure that all EU countries, both pledging and beneficiary EU Member States, allocate enough resources for the preparation, implementation as well as processing of all files related to the relocation process.
“In general, the Commission noted also that the continuous registration of candidates without sufficient transfers can jeopardize the relocation scheme (notably with the risk of increasing absconding or renunciations if relocation candidates wait for too long, resulting in a general loss of trust in the mechanism),” the statement notes.
Despite the fact that the scheme failed mainly due to the creation of strict selection criteria, which means there were not sufficient candidates for relocation in the first place, there are still questions about what happened with the relocation program introduced after the crisis of 2015.
As for the voluntary solidarity mechanism, as of December 1, just 207 people were transferred from Italy, while the Commission stressed that in Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Italy and Spain there were about 600 pre-acceptances but few transfers, which led to a rather disappointing result for the end of last year.
A report provided by AtoZSerwisPlus.com in November last year revealed that the European Union Member States relocated only 117 asylum seekers for a period from June until November.
We’re working very closely with all member states to ensure that we have in place a common solution. I know this number doesn’t seem like a lot but we need to keep in mind that we have 8,000 pledges as such,” a European Commission spokesperson stressed regarding the issue, based on a Euronews report.
European Union Member countries are continuously receiving a large number of refugees, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and are attempting to find effective ways in order to manage the current situation.
