We must celebrate the Refugee Convention by taking action.
Especially by stepping up on resettlement: providing refugees with a safe journey to a welcome home.
This week we celebrate the signing of the Geneva Refugee Convention, 70 years ago on 28 July 1951. Originally established to help millions of European refugees after the Second World War, it now protects refugees worldwide.
The 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention is a legally binding document. It provides an internationally agreed definition of refugee status. It sets out the rights of refugees, such as: The right not to be punished for illegal entry into the territory of a state. The right to work. The right to housing. The right to education. The right to freedom of religion. The right to assistance.
The cornerstone of the Convention is the principle of non-refoulement: refugees may not be expelled or returned to a country where they face threats to their life or freedom.
Ever since 1951, the Convention has been a beacon to guide refugees to safe havens.
The Refugee Convention is at the core of our Union and our EU asylum rules; both the Treaty [Article 78 TFEU] and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights [Article 18] refer directly to the Convention. The Court of Justice of the European Union consistently affirms that the Geneva Convention is the cornerstone of refugee protection.
As I told the European Parliament, we must celebrate the Convention through action.
Because the global need is high. There are now more than 82 million displaced people worldwide. More than 85 per cent of them, in developing countries.
Of these, 1.5 million people are now in need of resettlement, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
I want us to celebrate the Convention by stepping up on resettlement. Resettlement is central to our New Pact on Migration and Asylum –which includes a Recommendation on resettlement and other legal pathways.
Resettlement is also what the Convention is all about: Starting in Hungary in 1956, followed by Czechoslovakia in 1968, Uganda, Chile and Vietnam in the 1970s, the Balkans in the 1990s, and most lately from Syria, Myanmar and Iraq, hundreds of thousands, even millions of people have found safety through resettlement.
Since 2003, the UNHCR has helped to resettle over 1 million refugees – all over the world.
From 2015 onward, Europe gave more than 80,000 people a new home through resettlement. But last year, because of the pandemic, only about 10,000 refugees came to Europe in this safe and orderly way.
To relaunch resettlement I organised the very first High Level Forum on Resettlement earlier this month.
In my opening speech I called for a global alliance on resettlement. I presented my aim to secure 300 million euro for resettlement – enough to resettle up to 30,000 refugees. I called on generous pledges from the Member States to accept refugees.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi welcomed the new impetus provided by the Forum. He wants to reverse the downward trend on resettlement, and asked Europe to meet at least 40 per cent of UNHCR resettlement targets.
The new wind blowing from Washington is a breath of fresh air, and the ambition is impressive.
I was touched by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who spoke from his own experience as a refugee from Cuba and meeting a 17-year-old girl who had lived her entire life in a Kenyan refugee camp.
I found his words on a renewed US commitment to lead on resettlement very encouraging. As were the ambitious resettlement targets presented by Deputy Secretary of State Brian P. McKeon.
We learnt that that Canadian minister Marco Mendicino shares his birthday with the Convention – very fitting for a minister responsible for immigration and refugees. Although he is of course very much younger!
He stressed Canada’s age-old commitment to protecting refugees, and the important contributions made by refugees to society.
From the EU side, Minister Aleš Hojs hoped on behalf of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council to make progress on the Union Resettlement Framework Regulation – to allow for a more structured approach.
Italian Minister Luciana Lamorgese highlighted the importance of other legal pathways – such as the “Humanitarian Corridors” in which civil society plays a crucial role. Minister Maria Ohisalo (Finland) underlined the 40-year long Finnish tradition of resettlement, which continued even under the pandemic.
Members of the European Parliament Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar and Malin Björk and President of the International Rescue Committee David Miliband all called for ambitious targets, while António Vitorino (International Organisation for Migration) and Nina Gregori (EASO) offered concrete support for increased resettlement.
Refugee representative Anila Noor called for a new narrative on asylum – a call echoed by many.
We concluded the meeting with a joint press statement confirming our determination to work together and step up on resettlement.
I closed the meeting feeling inspired.
With the United States back on the global stage, Canada with its long standing commitment to resettlement, and the European Union with its long history of protecting refugees all joining forces, we can make a real difference.
All in all, a very worthy celebration, of the Convention.
And a very concrete step forward, on the Pact.
#TimetoDeliverMigrationEU will return in the first week of September.
The blog outlines the benefits of the proposals on migration tabled by the European Commission on 23 September 2020. For more detail on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum see below.
For More information
New Pact on Migration and Asylum | European Commission (europa.eu)
Commissioner Johansson’s Plenary speech commemorating the Refugee Convention, 6 July 2021
Commissioner Johansson’s speech at the High Level Forum on Resettlement, 9 July 2021
Webcast of the High Level Forum on Resettlement, 9 July 2021
Joint Press Statement following the High Level Forum: Providing protection through joint leadership: stepping up resettlement and complementary legal pathways
DG Migration and Home Affairs website: Resettlement and other pathways to protection
Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees -Geneva Convention
Statistics on migration to Europe
Details
- Publication date
- 25 July 2021
- Author
- Directorate-General for Communication