4.16.1. Resumption of resettlement programmes
On-going COVID-19 measures during 2021 prompted national administrations to use digital tools in order to continue with their activities in the field of resettlement. For instance, some selection missions moved online to comply with health measures and minimise the risk of infection, while others were organised onsite when the health situation allowed it. Digital tools (such as WebEx, Microsoft Teams and Skype) were used for conducting selection interviews and related meetings. Nevertheless, moving to online settings came with many challenges, such as technical issues (poor Internet connection, inadequate sound, bad image quality and interruptions), language barriers and the risk of losing trust during the interview phase. On some occasions, online activities were considered less effective and more time-consuming than face-to-face interactions, resulting in less cases being processed per day. To overcome logistical issues related to online settings, close cooperation with national authorities of the country of first asylum, UNCHR and the IOM were established during the year.
Pre-departure and cultural orientation programmes were mostly conducted fully online or through hybrid models that combined face-to-face sessions with remote training. The Netherlands, for example, offered different modalities, including fully digital information training provided through WhatsApp. A hybrid model was also developed where a part of the family attended the physical session and other family members participated in a remote session simultaneously. France resumed the organisation of face-to-face cultural orientation sessions in early 2021, with small groups to limit the risk of COVID-19 contamination.
A pre-departure orientation programme was introduced by Slovenia in November 2021 which replaced the 3-month introductory activities post-arrival.
In Spain, the Supreme Court confirmed that refugees who were resettled in Spain have refugee status, while in France, the National Court of Asylum held that the admission of an asylum seeker to a resettlement programme in which UNHCR takes part in Turkey does not imply that the refugee falls under the strict mandate of the UNHCR and that, in these circumstances when the strict mandate is not confirmed, it is up to the national asylum authority to determine the type of protection status to be given to the person (refugee status or subsidiary protection) upon arrival in France.
The modification of the Swedish Aliens Act in July 2021 stated that only resettled refugees are granted permanent residence permits immediately, while beneficiaries of international protection are granted a temporary residence permit with a validity determined by the type of protection granted (see Section 4.14.2.3).
With severely scaled down resettlement operations in 2020, most countries were not able to fulfil their pledges for the year, resulting in a carry-over to 2021 or a readjustment of the biannual resettlement targets set by some countries (as in the case of France). In this context, in June 2021, the Danish Minister for Immigration and Integration resettled 200 Congolese and Burundian refugees living in Rwanda as part of the 2020 quota.
In addition to the annual quota of 5,000 refugees for 2021, Sweden decided to additionally resettle 1,400 individuals who were selected in 2020 but could not be transferred during the year due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Developments in Afghanistan triggered rapid evacuations of persons in need of international protection and resettlement. In Sweden, a number of amendments to the regulatory framework on resettlement were adopted on 15 August 2021 to enable greater flexibility in specific situations, such as the Afghanistan situation. According to a government decision, the requirement that a person must be in a third country to be eligible for resettlement was temporarily removed. Furthermore, a decision of 15 August 2021 by the Ministry of Justice provided flexibility for the responsible authority, the Swedish Migration Agency, to redistribute places that were available within the 5,000 quota for 2021, allowing a larger number of places for emergency cases than the 500 earmarked for that purpose. In the period August-December 2021, 1,300 Afghan nationals were granted permanent residence permits and resettled in Sweden under the resettlement framework.
Afghan nationals also received protection under the resettlement programme in Norway, where approximately 700 Afghans, including unaccompanied children and families, were granted protection.
National governments decided on their 2022 quotas based on the budgets for the new year. In Switzerland, the Federal Council approved the 2022-2023 resettlement programme in May 2021 which includes the resettlement of 1,600 refugees focusing on three to five primary host countries.
Due to the deterioration of the security situation in Afghanistan, the Finnish government also increased the refugee quota by about 500 refugees, with a total of 1,500 persons to be transferred in 2022. The budget for this plan was raised to a total of EUR 1.1 million.