December 16, 2019 — As world leaders prepare to gather in Geneva for the first Global Refugee Forum (GRF), David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has called on European leaders to lead by example and address the ongoing refugee crisis at home.
Miliband, who will be attending the GRF this week, urges leaders of the EU27 to tackle the glaring gaps in Europe’s own response to migration, and recognise that while the low and middle income countries which host 85% of refugees will be the main focus of the summit, there is an unpalatable truth – that Europe is failing in important parts of its response on its own shores.
The IRC president writes: “By too many measures, Europe is not pulling its weight. Tragically few safe and legal routes exist for people fleeing war and persecution to access safety in Europe. And for those who do make it to Europe, the reality that greets them is far from the humane, efficient processing and integration that is important.”
Calling this a ‘tragic waste of potential’ Miliband calls for the EU to send a strong signal of international solidarity with refugee hosting countries in order to maintain its international credibility, and to:
- Commit to a fair and sustainable system to share responsibility for hosting refugees and asylum seekers across Europe, and to help reunite families and relocate vulnerable asylum seekers from Greece into other EU member states as soon as possible.
- Support the Greek government in addressing the crisis in Greece and especially on the islands as a matter of urgency.
- Make a collective resettlement pledge of at least 30,000 places for 2020 at the Global Refugee Forum and commit to a continuous, sustainable and significant increase in resettlement numbers beyond this annual pledge to reach 250,000 by 2025.
- Pledge to adopt a new and coordinated strategy at EU level to foster social and economic inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers.
In the letter Miliband specifically highlights the situation of some 40,000 people who remain in limbo in Greece in inhumane conditions “that rank among the worst our teams have seen anywhere in the world”, many of whom the IRC is directly supporting, particularly with regards to mental health programming, adding that “the human cost of the political deadlock that has characterised Europe’s response to migration is a stain on the continent’s proud record of championing fundamental rights around the world.”
The letter also details Europe’s failure to lead the way on the economic and social inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers, with numerous barriers preventing them from securing jobs and education - the only roads to self-reliance. New research commissioned by the IRC shows that when it comes to labour market integration, disparities between refugee women and refugee men, as well as refugee women and women of host countries, are consistently high, even in ‘exemplar’ countries such as Germany, where only 6% of women who are recognised as refugees are in employment (as opposed to 27% of refugee men and 53.5% of German women).
Read the full letter here.