“UNHCR would like to see more European engagement in refugee resettlement, and hopes the Spanish decision will encourage other EU Member States to follow.”– U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Andrej Mahecic, welcoming Spain’s recent establishment of an annual refugee resettlement program. The U.N. refugee agency has called on Europe to play a larger role in refugee resettlement, 90 percent of which is currently borne by the United States, Canada and Australia. Besides Spain, which set up the new initiative last week, 12 other European countries have annual resettlement programs – the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Last year Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg also implemented ad hoc resettlement programs. But currently, European countries together provide only about 6 percent of the world’s resettlement opportunities. “Resettlement is an important tool of refugee protection,” Mahecic told a news briefing in Geneva, noting it “provides a durable solution every year for tens of thousands of refugees who cannot safely remain in their first countries of asylum, and for whom return to their countries of origin is not possible.” UNHCR recently welcomed the European Commission’s proposal for the establishment of a Joint EU Resettlement Program. In 2009, UNHCR assisted around 66,000 refugees to resettle, of whom roughly 5,000 went to European countries.
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