Commission presents Progress Report on Relocation and Resettlement: Member States need to sustain efforts to deliver on commitments

Today the Commission adopted its latest progress report on the EU’s emergency relocation and resettlement schemes, assessing actions taken since 28 September 2016. With an additional 1,157 persons resettled since the last report, Member States have continued to deliver on their commitment to provide legal channels for people in need of protection, bringing the total up to 11,852 – more than half of the agreed 22,504 under the July 2015 scheme. Regarding relocation, the overall positive trend over the past few months is confirmed with an additional 1,212 relocations taking place during the reporting period. However, despite being a short-term drop due to specific circumstances, the exceptional decrease compared to the high number of relocations in September demonstrates that further efforts are still needed from Member States to sustain the positive trend reached until now. Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos said: “After the positive trends we have seen on both relocation and resettlement following summer, now is the moment to sustain them. I welcome the work done by Member States in their collective efforts on relocation and resettlement so far. I would like to see a stable number of pledges, swift procedures and a stable number of relocations every week. More needs to be done, and swiftly, to address the increasing arrivals in Italy and the many thousands stuck in Greece. One year into the schemes, we expect Member States to step up their efforts to deliver on their commitment and to fully comply with their obligations.”