UNHCR calls for stronger EU action on refugees

Geneva and Brussels, 5 December 2016

In a paper presented to the European Union (EU) today, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, called for a farreaching reform of Europe's global engagement with refugees, including the European asylum system.
UNHCR called on Europe to offer more strategic and targeted support to countries of origin, asylum and
transit of refugees, to review its contingency preparations to respond to large refugee and migrant arrivals,
and to put in place a more efficient and better managed asylum system. It also asked for greater investment
by EU Member States in the integration of refugees, including housing, employment and language training.
Last year, Europe failed to implement a collective, managed response to the challenges posed by the arrival
of over a million refugees and migrants, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. This
resulted in scenes of chaos at borders, leading to a breakdown in the public's trust in the capacity of
governments to manage the situation and playing into the hands of those who wanted to turn refugees into
scapegoats. It is important that EU Member States show, through collective action, that Europe is capable of
engaging effectively and in a principled manner with refugee movements, helping to stabilize refugee flows
over the long term through more strategic external engagement - while at the same time, continuing to
welcome refugees in Europe.
UNHCRs paper Better Protecting Refugees in the EU and Globally sets out a practical vision for how this
could be achieved both within the EU and globally. Among its main proposals are targeted measures to
address the reasons why refugees are fleeing and moving onwards, increased safe pathways for refugees to
Europe, and a simplified asylum system that would identify, register and process arrivals swiftly and efficiently
and would go a long way to restore public trust.
"This is now the moment for a new vision for Europe's engagement with the global refugee crisis," said Grandi
"drawing on its history of tolerance, openness and based on protection principles, but also with a pragmatic
and practical approach. History has demonstrated that Europe is stronger when it addresses its challenges
together; and I firmly believe that this is still possible today."
Building on elements of the existing Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and some of the reforms
proposed by the European Commission, UNHCRs proposals would result in a simplified asylum system that
would provide access to territory, register and receive new arrivals properly, allocate responsibility for asylumseekers amongst EU Member States and ensure that Member States are equipped to meet the task.
UNHCRs proposed reforms would guarantee the right to asylum, enhance security screening, facilitate the
efficient management of population movements and could potentially reduce costs.
The proposals include a common European registration system, accelerated and simplified procedures for
asylum determination, prioritization of family reunion, a common approach to unaccompanied and separated
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To download UNHCRs Better Protecting Refugees in the EU and Globally paper click here:
(http://www.refworld.org/docid/58385d4e4.html)
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