On 12 June, the conference of the EMN National Contact Point (NCP) for Norway was held in Oslo entitled Resettlement: Regional Solutions and Humanitarian Assistance. Among speakers of the conference were representatives of Norwegian Refugee Council, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Refugees Studies Center at the University of Oxford, Peace Research Institute (PRIO), European Commission, Swedish Migration Board and ministries of foreign affairs of Denmark and Norway. The conference was attended by a representative of IOM Bratislava and Migration Office of the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic.
There is a tradition of resettlement quota in Norway for many years. In Norway, resettlement of refugees as well as their integration is the role of local municipal authorities. The absorption capacity of the municipalities determines the quota and their composition for a particular year.
In the last decades, international conflicts have been replaced by the internal ones. The gap between the richest and the poorest countries has never been wider while there has been only modest improvement in economic conditions of poor countries. The gap between the needs and international assistance in the conflict zones and neighbouring countries has been widening as well. Natural disasters partly caused by climate change contribute to the high number of displaced persons.
The term “resettlement” was used for the first time in 1956 when high number of refugees from Hungary entered neighbouring Austria and Yugoslavia and it was necessary to resettle them in other European countries. The initial goal of this instrument was burden sharing.
Research on the resettlement including the selection process as well as the role of UNHCR is crucial for its evaluation. The conference presented the research of the refugee camp Dadaab in Kenya which in April 2015 sheltered more than 400 000 refugees. Apart from positive examples from practice, the conference also provided an insight into unsuccessful examples of resettlement connected to failed integration. For a resettlement programme to be successful, there is a need for political will, convergence between foreign policies, humanitarian development as well as an identifiable population of candidates for resettlement. Apart from this, Regional Development and Protection Programmes (RDPP) for Northern and Eastern Africa and Middle East were introduced.
A Cluster Meeting on the resettlement selection criteria was held after the conference hosting a Vincent Cochetel from UNHCR and Cindy Horst from PRIO. The meeting was attended by a representative form IOM.
More information about the conference including programme and presentations is available on the Norwegian EMN NCP website.