GENEVA, 26 March 2013 (ICMC) – In an unprecedented move by a non-neighbouring nation since the beginning of the uprising more than two years ago, Germany last week agreed to take in some 5,000 refugees fleeing ongoing violence in Syria.

Germany hopes its European Union partners will soon join it in sharing the responsibility for the humanitarian crisis that is severely affecting Syria’s neighbouring countries of Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey and that has already cost over 70,000 lives.

“This is an important expression of German solidarity particularly with Syria’s bordering countries that are currently hosting over one million refugees,” said Minister of the Interior Hans-Peter Friedrich during a 20 March press conference. “I hope that we will be the icebreakers.”

Friedrich added the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres would soon launch an official appeal to EU governments to offer more resettlement places. The EU so far has not officially urged Member States to resettle refugees from Syria, focusing instead on providing approximately €435 million in humanitarian assistance to internally displaced people in Syria and assistance to third host countries.

EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström welcomed Germany’s initiative and offered to “look into the possibility of offering financial help to Germany in its resettlement efforts”. Germany has already earmarked some 132 million euros (€) to respond to the Syrian crisis.

The first refugees from Syria will arrive to Germany in June, priority being given to children separated from families or unaccompanied and to needy refugees with relatives in Germany – including Christians who are particularly at risk of persecution – the Minister of the Interior said.

Most refugees from Syria arriving to neighbouring countries are granted refugee status there and assistance from the United Nations refugee agency. However, they can neither return home – where the crisis deepens – nor build a life in temporary host countries whose already scarce resources are stretched to the limits. Organizations lobbying in favour of refugee resettlement argue that richer countries such as Germany should respond to this emergency by offering protection for the long-term to the most vulnerable of Syrian refugees.

Unlike emergency humanitarian assistance, resettlement to third countries is a durable solution for refugees who find themselves in camps or cities in asylum countries where they cannot stay for the longer-term. Yet only 80,000 refugees are resettled every year around the world – around 1 per cent of the total number of registered refugees, according to UNHCR.

Germany, among Europe’s traditional immigration countries, in 2009 had already offered to resettle some 2,500 refugees from Iraq, and in 2011 agreed to take in 900 refugees over a three-year period.

An EU-wide response to the Syrian humanitarian crisis

As it did for the Iraqi refugee crisis in 2008, Germany has advocated an EU-wide response to the violence in Syria, calling in particular for coordinated resettlement of refugees to complement the brokering of a negotiated solution to the conflict and the provision of emergency humanitarian assistance.

Resettlement is not the only way Syrians can start life anew. Asylum is an alternative that Europe has increasingly made available to Syrians. While 1.1 million Syrian refugees, currently registered with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in neighbouring countries, hope to return home, almost 25,000 Syrians have asked last year for asylum in industrialized countries on an individual basis, a threefold increase over the previous year, according to a UNHCR report published 21 March. Only Afghan claims were more numerous, at nearly 37,000.

Syrian asylum seekers had the highest admission rate among those applying for asylum in the EU last year, EUROSTAT reported. Though increasing everywhere in Europe since the beginning of the conflict, Syrian asylum applications concern mostly Germany, France and Sweden.

Resettling refugees saves lives

As the Syrian civil war grinds on, non-governmental organizations such as the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) are pointing out the need to offer resettlement to Syrian refugees in urgent need of protection and help.

ICMC’s partner Pro Asyl<, a German organization comprised of refugee councils, churches, unions as well as welfare and human rights organizations defending the interest of refugees, has promoted the ‘Save Me – A city says YES!' campaign for resettlement.

This grass roots initiative is mobilizing civil society in over 50 cities in Germany. Encouraging campaign supporters to advocate resettlement and give their spare time to support refugees resettling in the country, it organized social gatherings, anti-racism theatre plays, postcard sales and petitions to MPs and local politicians,

The campaign coordinators welcomed Friedrich’s announcement and are hoping for more such efforts – both from other countries and from Germany itself.

“The fact that the Ministry of Interior agreed upon taking in 5,000 refugees shows that Germany has a potential to take on a greater role in the protection of refugees,” said coordinator of Sarah Hergenröther of Save Me München. “We hope that other European countries will follow suit.”

Based on the success of ‘Save Me’ in Germany, the International Catholic Commission (ICMC) is working with Pro Asyl and partners such a Church Commission for Migrants in Europe< (CCME), European Council on Refugees and Exiles< (ECRE), Amnesty International<, Caritas<, National Red Cross Societies of the Member States of the EU<, and International Organization for Migration< (IOM) to share its experience and develop the campaign beyond Germany into a European-wide Resettlement Saves Lives Campaign< advocating the resettlement of some 20, 000 refugees in Europe every year by 2020.

A Save Me campaign manual containing best practices in resettlement campaigning will be published in May 2013 to help European cities run the same kind of initiatives.

In the framework of the SHARE Programme<, ICMC and its partners, including Pro Asyl, ECRE, UNHCR<, EUROCITIES<, the British city of Sheffield, the and CCME, are building a network of European regions, cities and civil-society organizations to facilitate information sharing particularly about reception and integration of resettled refugees between experienced countries and those planning or considering resettlement . Following the German cities of Aachen, Bonn and Dusseldorf, München will participate in SHARE Network activities this year.

By Lori Brumat in Geneva with Rachel Westerby and Petra Hueck in Brussels

Photocredit © IOM / Tunis / September 2012

Photo description:

German Ambassador to Tunisia Jen Plötner at the Djerba airport with refugee family displaced to the Chucha camp in southern Tunisia by the Libyan conflict before their departure for Germany in September 2012.