CONTEXT: REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT
Through resettlement, countries such as Belgium allow refugees to enter the country through legal channels and to be protected. Shared efforts are indeed the key to a humanitarian solution. Resettlement is a program run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which selects particularly vulnerable refugees to participate in the program. These people are then transferred from the country where they have found refuge to the country that has agreed to resettle them.
The standard route for a resettled refugee is to stay in a Fedasil reception center and then in a Local Reception Initiative (LRI). Through community sponsorship, some refugees can move directly into their own homes, which are provided by local host groups.
OBJECTIVES: TO STRENGTHEN EACH OTHER
- Through the exchange of information and good practices for the reception and support of applicants for international protection, who have been resettled through community sponsorship programs, between members and local and regional partners of the network. Indeed, the successful integration of refugees depends in particular on the commitment and capacities of local actors.
- Improve sponsorship programs, taking into account the different political levels involved: national, regional, and local.
- To build and strengthen the sponsorship community by exchanging good practices and information at the European level.
- Ensure support, participation, and recognition of volunteers in host groups, as well as participation and feedback for applicants for international protection.
- Expand the sponsorship program and involve new actors by extending the programs to national territories.
>>Discover all the actions carried out to support the resettled people.
ACTIVITIES
- Exchange of good practices at European level, national roundtables, training, and capacity building of sponsors;
- Monitoring and evaluating of local volunteer groups in partner countries, including feedback sessions;
- Awareness-raising and local activities with local sponsors and refugees that strengthen leadership and inspire other actors to get involved;
- International workshops to exchange best practices on topics such as assessment and monitoring of refugees and sponsoring groups, interfaith cooperation, regions and cities as sponsors, sponsorship programs for universities and worker mobility, cultural orientation and pre-departure coordination, and financial models and involvement of the private sector and charitable organizations.
- European sponsorship event where local actors from all over Europe come together to celebrate the unique contributions of local communities, volunteers, and refugees.
