2013-02-21 Continued Focus on the Horn of Africa in Swedens Quota Selections for 2013 In 2013, as in previous years, the Swedish resettlement efforts will be concentrated on the refugee situation in and around the Horn of Africa, as well as in the areas around Afghanistan. New destinations in this year´s programme for the selection of quota refugees are Uganda and Egypt, where two smaller selections are planned. A total of 1,900 people will receive assistance within the framework of 2013´s annual refugee quota, which is divided between 1,350 places already earmarked and 550 places that have not yet been earmarked. The places already earmarked are set aside for Somali citizens who have fled to Kenya, Eritrean and Ethiopian citizens in Sudan, Colombian citizens in Ecuador and Afghan citizens in Iran. Refugee camp in east Sudan. Photo: UNHCR/A. Awad. “There continues to be a great need for resettlement among these groups. We have also accepted the UNHCR proposal to resettle citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who are currently in Uganda and refugees in Egypt, says Oskar Ekblad, Head of Department at the Swedish Migration Board. Uganda and Egypt — new to this year´s quota programme For the selection of 150 refugees and people in need of protection from DRC, the Board is planning to send its first delegation ever to Uganda. These individuals have previously constituted a relatively large group within the framework of the Swedish Migration Board dossier assessment. Around 45,000 Congolese have recently fled to the neighbouring countries Uganda and Rwanda. The resettlement of Congolese refugees from the area surrounding the African Great Lakes has become an ever more important task, against the background of the socio-economic conditions in the region and the restrictive asylum conditions of many countries. In the autumn, the Board plans to send a delegation to Egypt, where 150 selected people of various nationalities will be investigated. Since the violence broke out in Libya in 2011, hundreds of thousands of people have fled over the border to Egypt. In addition to the delegation selections in Uganda and Egypt, two trips to Ecuador and Kenya are planned in order to select 150 Colombian and 300 Somali citizens, respectively. Increased need for resettlement The need for resettlement continues to grow. According to the UNHCR, 181,000 people are expected to require resettlement over the course of 2013, which is an increase of five per cent, compared to the previous year. At the same time, there is only one tenth as many places available — just over 80,000 people are expected to have the opportunity to be resettled this year. At the same time as the need for resettlement rises, the pressure on Sweden´s reception of asylum seekers and persons who have been granted a residence permit has made it more difficult for the Board to place selected quota refugees in municipalities. The positive effects of strategic resettlement Over the course of the past few years, the Swedish Migration Board and the UNHCR have worked to increase the positive effects of the places Sweden and the other 25 countries set aside within the framework of their respective refugee quotas. “The Swedish Migration Board´s planned allocation of places in the 2013 refugee quota reflects the UNHCR priorities concerning the worldwide need for resettlement. The selections are going to help not just the individual refugees who are transferred to Sweden, but they will also support the work that the UNHCR is doing on site to help those who remain in the first countries of asylum, says Pia Prytz Phiri, regional representative for the UNHCR in the Baltic and Nordic countries. As the UNHCR has described, resettlement may have a direct, as well as a more indirect significance and effect — from an increased amount of physical space in a refugee camp, to a more accepting attitude amongst the public authorities of the host country. This can, in turn, mean that more of the remaining refugees receive protection and get the opportunity to stay in the host country. The refugee quota for 2012 Over the course of 2012, just over 1,700 quota refugees were transferred to Sweden. Five selections took place in total, with the help of delegations in Tunisia, Djibouti, Iran, Kenya and Ecuador. Every year, the Swedish Riksdag allocates money to the Swedish refugee quota. The quota gives Sweden the opportunity to support people who have fled their homes and offer them sanctuary. On an annual basis, the Swedish Government has assigned the Swedish Migration Board the task of resettling around 1,700 to 1,900 refugees and other people in need of protection. Sweden is the country that accepts the fourth highest number of quota refugees in the world, and accepts more quota refugees than any other EU country.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 13:37:44 +0000
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