Member States that accept to receive refugees from third countries should receive financial support from the EU refugee fund, recommended Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee yesterday on Rui Tavares report.

EU countries must obtain a preset amount of €4000 for each person resettled, according to certain number of precedence: children and women at risk of violence or mistreatment, unaccompanied minors, person with grave medical requirements, survivors of aggression and torture and people endangered with forced return or victims of natural disasters, alleged the report of the EL and GUE/NGL member. And to persuade more Member States to aid in resettlement, the subsidy should be augmented to €6000 per person for the first year, €5000 in the second year and €4000 thereafter.

At the moment, EU countries in general are contributing to relocation far less than other developed countries as the US, Australia and Canada and only 10 Member States participated in any resettlement plans. In 2008, the EU contributed to merely 6.7% of the global resettlement of refugees, with 4378 individuals, when the UNHCR calculates that approximately 747,000 require resettlement.

 

Rui Tavares drafted a second report related to this issue that was also approved in the LIBE Committee yesterday on the principles that should support the EU resettlement programme.