14 European Union member states have committed to taking in a total of almost 61,000 refugees over the next two years.

According to UNHCR, the Commission will bring in 31,000 would be via refugee resettlement programs. The remaining 30,000 will be admitted via humanitarian admissions programs.

Humanitarian admissions programs are not resettlement schemes per se, but constitute a separate route available to people who are still in their country of origin but require urgent support to leave.

'EU already hosting 20% of global refugee population'

EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson announced the scheme on the sidelines of the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on Thursday (December 14), However, she did not say which 14 of the 27 EU member states exactly had made these commitments.

"I have the commitment of 14 member states for 2024 and 2025 for the resettlement and humanitarian admission," Johansson said.

"We are, right now, in the EU hosting seven million refugees," Johansson said during her speech. "That means the EU is hosting 20% of the global refugee population." Germany is hosting the third-largest number of refugees in the world, she added.

Only Turkey and Iran currently have a larger refugee population. (According to UNHCR, Colombia also has a larger refugee population than Germany -- including "others in need of international protection".)

Of the some 17 EU countries that made resettlement pledges for 2023, Germany, France and Spain are the most generous, Reuters reported citing an EU document.

Also read: IOM facilitates resettlement of over 30,000 Rwandan refugees since 2010

Number of spots remains low

According to Johansson, the number of EU resettlement spots is slightly higher than in previous years.

Last year, around 17,300 people in need of international protection were resettled from non-EU countries -- 6% less than in 2021, but 97% more than in 2020, according to the European Commission. Syrians accounted for 63% of the resettled.

175,000 people have been resettled in the EU or given protection through humanitarian admission programs since 2015, Johansson said.

UNHCR chief Filippo Grand told Reuters before the forum that many Western politicians were becoming less welcoming in the face of the large number of refugee arrivals and urged them to do more.

Citing pressure on their asylum systems, some wealthy countries, including non-EU country Switzerland, have temporarily suspended such admissions.

The UNHCR's resettlement programs enable people who have officially sought protection in one country to relocate to another country that has agreed to accept them. In the host country, they receive international protection and ultimately permanent residence.

More resettlement is often cited as one of the main ways to create more legal pathways to Europe. With more than 47,000 refugees resettled in 2022, Canada welcomed more people seeking protection than any other country for the fourth consecutive year.

Read more: Report accuses EU of 'staggering neglect' of Afghan asylum seekers

Four million Ukrainian refugees in EU

In her speech, Johansson said the European Union also gave protection to more than four million Ukrainian refugees who have fled since Russia's invasion in February 2022.

More than one million of them currently reside in Germany alone, closely followed by Poland with just under a million. More than 600,000 Ukrainian children are presently attending schools across the bloc, Johansson added.

However, in Germany and particularly in Poland, thousands are still not enrolled in school.

Johansson furthermore rebuffed criticism that the EU is more favoring Ukrainians over those from other countries. "We are not stepping down on resettlement, actually a little bit stepping up on resettlement. So it's not true. It's not either/or, it's both," she replied to a journalist who raised this issue.

Read more: The refugees from Ukraine now in limbo in the Netherlands

with AFP, Reuters

This article was edited and corrected from an earlier version to clarify details about the scheme