The Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan for Europe: Eastern Mediterranean and Western Balkans route :: January – December 2016
IOM, UNHCR and 65 other organizations
2016 :: 110 pages
Report pdf: http://rmrp-europe.unhcr.org/2016_RMRP_Europe.pdf

[Report excerpt}
p.12
Response Strategy
The regional RMRP presents a framework for an inter-agency response to the refugee and migrant mass flows into Europe through the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Balkans route. It sets out the overall strategic direction at the regional level, while building upon specific country chapters.

Besides cooperation with Governments, the RMRP will be implemented in close cooperation with the European Commission and relevant EU Agencies, including the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the EU (FRONTEX) and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO).

This response plan includes both a strategy and an appeal. The latter covers financial requirements to address major concerns in the areas of access to territory and asylum, to improve reception conditions and provide a protection-centered emergency assistance to people of concern, and to enable access to effective protection systems and durable solutions.

The RMRP will cover the needs of an integrated emergency response in Europe for twelve months in 2016, utilizing a planning figure of one million refugees and migrants arriving via sea from Turkey to Greece. It represents a coherent and predictable package of interventions based on standardized approaches and comparative advantages of involved partners.

The RMRP is also part of a comprehensive approach which includes a number of response plans and programmatic activities in refugee producing and transit countries.

Recognizing the primary leadership and responsibility of host governments, the strategic goals are:
1. To design and implement a response that supports, complements and builds Governments’ existing capacity to ensure effective and safe access to asylum, protection and solutions in relevant countries, as well as manage migration in an orderly and dignified manner while protecting the human rights of all refugees and migrants.

2. To ensure that refugee and migrant women, girls, boys and men have access to protection and assistance in a participatory manner, with particular attention to specific needs. Protection-centred assistance should be delivered in a manner that respects the principle of non-discrimination; age, gender and diversity; is appropriate to the specific characteristics of the movement; and takes into account the needs of the local communities.

3. To strengthen national and local capacities and protection systems and ensure safe access to longer-term solutions for refugees and migrants who may become stranded, may want to apply for asylum, or may want to return voluntarily to their countries of origin. This includes a robust and protection-centred relocation scheme, as well as reinforced alternative legal pathways to protection, such as family reunification and resettlement.

4. To strengthen partnership and coordination within the humanitarian community and with governments, both in setting common goals and in establishing national-level coordination
structures and information analysis, that ensure an efficient and coordinated response, including coordinated channels for citizen engagement to support the reception and integration of refugees and migrants….

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Press Release
IOM, UNHCR, Partners Seek USD 550 Million for Europe’s Refugees and Migrants
01/26/16
Switzerland – As continuing conflict in the Middle East and elsewhere drives people to seek refuge in Europe, IOM, UNHCR and some 65 other organizations yesterday appealed in Geneva to donors for USD 550 million to support the ongoing humanitarian response.

With global forced displacement at a record high of some 60 million people and increasingly impacting countries of the Global North, 2015 saw over a million refugees and migrants arriving in Europe by boat.

Around 850,000 of these crossed from Turkey to Greece, with most continuing through the Balkans and towards Austria, Germany, Sweden and other western European countries.

The appeal aims at funding humanitarian operations in 2016 across the affected countries, with approximately half of the funds allocated for Greece.

Humanitarian operations will include aid and protection activities where people are arriving, including identifying those at heightened risk, registration, shelter, water and sanitation to bolster the capacity of frontline responders, including coastguards, border guards, police and support for affected communities. Help with relocation, resettlement and other regular solutions was also part of the appeal.