As Pope Benedict XVI has said, “their suffering pleads with individual states and the international community (…) to make provisions for concrete solidarity also through appropriate structures for hospitality and resettlement programmes.” (Pope’s Message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees, 2012.) Last year, 80,000 refugees who had neither the possibility to return to their own countries nor stay in the country to which they had fled were welcomed for resettlement in another country.

Among those being saved is a 17 year-old boy (name withheld) from western Ethiopia, who received word just last month that he is one of 860 refugees accepted for resettlement out of a refugee camp in Tunisia. Three years ago, in circumstances not unusual for refugees, his father—who worked as a driver—had been taken away in the night for dubious reasons and thrown into prison, where he died within months. His mother died shortly afterwards; then the boy and his sister were imprisoned by police asking about their father. Released, they paid smugglers to help them escape first to Sudan, then to Libya. His sister died as they crossed the Sahara. Now on his way to resettle in Denmark, he hopes someday to be reunited with his younger siblings.

In partnership with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), ICMC experts work in camps and cities worldwide to identify refugees, including children like these, for whom resettlement is the only solution possible. With US funding, ICMC assisted more than 7,000 refugees in 2011 to obtain approval to resettle in the US, mainly Iraqi refugees. Globally, ICMC experts referred another 45,500 refugees for future resettlement.

Among the reasons to celebrate this year:

• There are currently 27 countries that regularly offer resettlement to refugees, a significant increase over the 14 countries in 2005, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, and Spain, who formally announced that they were establishing resettlement programs in 2012.

• On March 29th, the European Parliament adopted for the first time a formal EU-wide framework for welcoming refugees in need of resettlement to Europe.

• Non-government organizations and cities as well as national governments and international agencies are collaborating in new and broader ways. With EU funding, UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration and ICMC have organized a series of programmes, and a new EU Resettlement Network, to build exchange of practice, skills, capacity and inter-city networking among European actors to achieve successful resettlement of refugees arriving in Europe, including not only assistance upon arrival but pre-departure preparation, long-term self-sufficiency and integration.

It is important also to reinforce efforts worldwide so that this life-saving solution continues to be practical and available to those who need it. Cause for concern:

• Even as the number of countries offering refugee resettlement has increased, the total number of refugees actually being resettled has decreased in the past few years, and significantly since 2009.

• 90% of the refugees resettled each year are accepted by just three countries: the US, Canada and Australia.

• For 2012, UNHCR estimates global resettlement needs at 172,196 persons, while the total number of resettlement places extended by governments is just 80,000. That leaves more than 92,000 refugees without this solution—just this year—unless nations increase this hospitality.

Increasing resettlement opportunities is precisely the aim of the “Resettlement saves lives 2020 campaign”, recently launched to help 20,000 refugees start a new life in Europe each year by 2020, up from 5,500 per year currently. (See http://www.resettlement.eu/page/resettlement-saves-lives-2020-campaign<)

A resettlement system that provides protection from persecution, that saves lives, is worth celebrating—and strengthening. Working closely with the refugees themselves, communities, cities, countries and international agencies build this solution together.

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