Hearing and statements by Malin BJORK (GUE/NGL, SE), Rapporteur, and Oskar EKLBLAD, Swedish Migration Agency, during the meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) on EU Resettlement Framework, in the EP in Brussels. .

Brussels

statement

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

hearing

BJÖRK, Malin (The Left, SE)

EU Resettlement Framework: extracts from the hearing and statement by the Rapporteur of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

SOUNDBITE (Swedish), Malin BJORK (GUE/NGL, SE), Rapporteur, Resettlement, which is based on the UN's refugee quota system, should remain a humanitarian system that is based on individual needs for protection, and it means that you should use these systems for other goals. But to use them to give individual protection, that show solidarity, that the EU should take greater responsibility.

SOUNDBITE (Swedish), Malin BJORK (GUE/NGL, SE), Rapporteur, Yes what is important in this phase is that we consolidate that the EU is engaged to receive more refugees and to take on greater responsibility. We will not use it to try to control migrational flows, or to use third countries as border guards, because that is what is being prepared now, and as for the countries that do not want to take part, I think we should rather focus on those countries that actually want to take part, that want to build good systems for the reception of refugees in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Malin BJORK (GUE/NGL, SE), Rapporteur, I think we will come up with several improvements compared with the Commission&rsquo;s proposal, one of the most important is that we would aim to make it non-conditional. It means that we want this to be a humanitarian act providing individual protection for people in need, so it shouldn&rsquo;t be used for migration control or other purposes: it would derail the whole purpose of resettlement as we know it. So that&rsquo;s one thing and the other thing is that we need to get the numbers up. I think the proposal is not ambitious enough when it comes to how many people should Europe actually receive and give protection status to. So we need to get those numbers up.

SOUNDBITE (English), Malin BJORK (GUE/NGL, SE), Rapporteur, I think we should not pay too much attention to the few, there are actually few countries that don&rsquo;t want to participate. We should pay attention to and reinforce and award those countries that want to participate, that want to take bigger responsibility and that want Europe to take a bigger responsibility, and in doing that, I think if we support those aims, we can get the numbers up. But we cannot get the numbers up if we focus on countries that don&rsquo;t want to participate.

SOUNDBITE (Swedish), Oskar EKLBLAD, Swedish Migration Agency, To go to places where refugees are in need and resettle them in countries where they can have new future is a question that has engaged Sweden for long time, and I think we have had a lot of possibilities to influence over a long time through the way we conduct our work. And now I am not talking about politics but just through the fact that we have a programme that is quick and flexible, non-discriminatory and which supports the UN.

SOUNDBITE (Swedish), Oskar EKLBLAD, Swedish Migration Agency, there is no doubt that the Swedisgh reception system has been under strain, and of course 163,000 asylum seekers last year made a big difference for the issue of accomodation, and it also influences the reception of quota refugees, and we are in a situation where the municipalities are having a hard time to receive people. But at the same time Sweden has maintained our resettlement, it is 1900 this year, 3400 next year, 5000 in the year after that, according to the political direction staked out by the government. And maybe it shows that resettlement, despite the fact that last year was extraordinary in terms of reception, must be able to continue. Because there are a lot of people that actually need protection and that don't have any possibility to get to Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Oskar EKLBLAD, Swedish Migration Agency, We have a programme that&rsquo;s agile, flexible, non-discriminatory and that provides very pragmatic solutions for individuals. And that kind of pragmatism that is focused around that I think it&rsquo;s something that we may be able to showcase for other European colleagues.

SOUNDBITE (English), Oskar EKLBLAD, Swedish Migration Agency, We&rsquo;ve faced a massive influx of asylum seekers last year, 163 000 people came to our country and we are a country of 10 million and the Swedish government has decided to still maintain the refugee quota and actually increase it up to 5000 in the year 201. Obviously that&rsquo;s a political decision. I am responsible to making sure that works and we can make it work and I think the mechanics around resettlement is often used not to do resettlement and what we are trying to showcase is that the mechanics of resettlement is something that you can really master and be good at.

SOUNDBITE (English), Oskar EKLBLAD, Swedish Migration Agency, We have a very flexible system, we work very closely with our municipalities; there are 219 local entities who are very pressed because of the reception of newly arrived refugees to begin with but when we speak to them resettlement remains very much a core value to them. They see, they are invited to join us to our missions in the field in Africa, in the Middle East, and what they see there is something very different and it kind of ties their own situation to the ;arger refugee situation, and I think they are really proud to work with it.