Did you know…? Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund

Welcomeurope invites you to read the following lines concerning the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). As the fund is wide and complex, the focus will be on its main features and some definitions will be provided.

The European Commission has been consistently and continuously working for a coordinated European response on the refugees and migration front, and is now awarding emergency funds to tackle the crisis, recently to Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and other countries dealing with the high influx of migrants.

The AMIF was set up for the period 2014-2020 in order to promote the efficient management of migration flows. The other Home Affairs financial instrument is the Internal Security Fund (ISF-Borders and ISF-Police)

The total budget for seven years is 3.1 billion euro.

The general objective of the Fund shall be to contribute to the implementation, strengthening and development of the common policy on asylum, subsidiary protection and temporary protection and the common immigration policy, while fully respecting the rights and principles enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Within this general objective, this Fund aims in particular at supporting legal migration, enhancing fair and effective return strategies and promoting solidarity and responsibility-sharing between the Member States.

Means to achieve the objectives are allocated as follows:
NATIONAL PROGRAMMES : EU countries publish their own calls for proposals and tenders
UNION ACTIONS: actions with a high level of EU added value, the Commission publishes calls for proposals and tenders
EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE: a flexible mechanism for emergency response, EU countries can ask for additional funding in case of emergencies.

All EU States except Denmark participate in the implementation of this Fund. Examples of beneficiaries of the programmes implemented under this Fund can be state and federal authorities, local public bodies, non-governmental organisations, humanitarian organisations, private and public law companies and education and research organisations.

Read <<< Migration and Home Affairs Funds 2014-20 >>>

* Glossary *

‘resettlement’: the process whereby, on a request from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees based on a person’s need for international protection, third-country nationals are transferred from a third country and established in a Member State where they are permitted to reside with one of the following statuses: ‘refugee status’ or ‘subsidiary protection status’

‘return’ : the process of a third-country national going back, whether in voluntary compliance with an obligation to return or enforced

‘removal’: the enforcement of the obligation to return, namely the physical transportation out of the Member State

‘emergency situation’: a situation resulting from
(i) heavy migratory pressure in one or more Member States characterised by a large and disproportionate inflow of third-country nationals
(ii) the implementation of temporary protection mechanisms
(iii) heavy migratory pressure in third countries where refugees are stranded due to events such as political developments or conflicts

‘third-country national’ : any person who is not a citizen of the Union within the meaning of Article 20(1) TFEU

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