World: UNHCR updated recommendations to the European Union Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 (August 2020)
The European Union (EU) is a key partner when it comes to addressing asylum and forced displacement challenges and assisting forcibly displaced people and their hosts abroad and at home. At the first Global Refugee Forum (2019), the EU strongly committed to further engage in forced displacement and asylum, as a reliable partner for protection and solutions.
With more than 79 million people forced to flee – 1% of the world’s population – continued, increased and predictable EU engagement on their behalf is needed now more than ever. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, appeals to the EU to translate its commitment to a reliable partnership on forced displacement and asylum into sound instruments and sufficient resources in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF 2021-2027), both within and outside its borders.
In line with its founding Treaty and its Charter on Fundamental Rights, the EU needs to have adequate mechanisms in place as well as appropriate resources at hand to ensure people in need of international protection can access its territory, benefit from asylum in Europe, and contribute to societies through well-funded avenues for integration. Regarding its investments outside of the EU, with more predictable funding in place, the EU can meet growing humanitarian and development needs, save lives, help to ease pressure on large refugee-hosting countries, and provide forcibly displaced people with a future, wherever they are.
