Jorge Fernández Díaz announces Spain will facilitate resettlement of 1,449 people in clear need of international protection in Middle East and North Africa

Brussels

Jorge Fernández Díaz said that resettlement is a solution that Spain views "positively" as a response to the problems experienced by those people outside EU borders in clear need of international protection and a solidarity measure with those non-EU countries overwhelmed by the huge influx of refugees into their territories.

In this regard, the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs said that Spain wishes to adopt a constructive position based on solidarity, to which end it is working to re-scale its asylum and reception system by allocating the necessary human and material resources.

Jorge Fernández Díaz announced that Spain will undertake the resettlement of 1,449 people in clear need of international protection from those regions considered priorities, particularly the Middle East and North Africa.

While speaking to his European partners, the Spanish minister stressed that Spain is one of the 15 Member States of the European Union with a resettlement programme and resettled the ninth-highest number of people in 2014. He went on to highlight that the successive resettlement programmes organised by Spain have been renewed every year since 2010, with the last two undertaken from regions considered priorities, such as the Middle East and North Africa.

Spain: constructive and solidarity-based approach to resettlement and relocation

The Spanish Minister for Home Affairs told his European counterparts that Spain wants the efforts made by certain Member States in the fight against illegal immigration and control of the EU external border in the best interests of all other Member States to be considered.

Jorge Fernández Díaz informed the JHA Council members that Spain estimates it has received over 12,000 asylum applications in 2015, to which should be added the more than 5,000 asylum seeker relocation requirements following application of the Dublin Regulation. In total, said the Minister for Home Affairs, "Spain will have to process over 17,000 asylum cases in 2015, meaning that the number of asylum applications has multiplied four-fold in three years".

Jorge Fernández Díaz announced that Spain will undertake the relocation of 1,300 people in clear need of international protection from Italy and Greece. However, he believes that the most effective form of solidarity with other Member States of the European Union consists of "working together" to solve the root cause of common problems and "clearly identify the nature of those problems, 75% of which, in the current migration crisis in the Mediterranean, relate to a migratory phenomenon of an economic nature".

In terms of migration issues, Spain is meeting its obligations on a daily basis and has been doing so for many years, exercising control over the external borders of the European Union, combating illegal immigration and cooperating with non-EU countries in the fight against people trafficking.

Memorandum on the creation of a European Return Programme

The Spanish Minister for Home Affairs highlighted the importance given by Spain to creating a European Return Programme "because return and readmission must be key aspects of our migration policy".

The specific measures being proposed seek maximum effectiveness in both forced and voluntary returns, affecting the various stages of these processes as well as collaboration with and training in the countries of origin.

Jorge Fernández Díaz advocated the need to improve the current 39% of returns being completed effectively within the European Union, for which he stressed "we must have the cooperation of non-Member States".

The Minister for Home Affairs said that Spain believes the European Return Programme must include a "much more practical and operational approach to returns" and efforts must be made to create a "specific fund with a sufficiently large budgetary provision" so as to guarantee its operability and efficacy.

In this regard, Jorge Fernández Díaz explained that the Delegations of the European Union and the European External Action Service should also contribute towards the implementation of this programme by supporting it in the non-EU countries of origin of illegal immigration.

Finally, the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs explained that the memorandum presented by Spain also proposes the creation of a European Return Office within the scope of FRONTEX "aimed at ensuring that the effort made by Member States on such return issues is a genuinely common effort from the European Union as a whole".