“The risk is related to the creation of the new EU Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) that replaces funds for refugees, integration of migrants and returns existing so far”, explains Karolina Rusiłowicz, HFHR lawyer. She adds: “On the one hand, as an organisation, we are happy with these changes, but on the other, we think that the manner in which they have been introduced leaves much to be desired”.
Recipients of those funds will be both administration bodies and NGOs. They are allocated for direct assistance for foreigners (legal, psychological and social aid) and for infrastructural development, for instance of centres for foreigners.
First AMIF’s projects will be launched in July 2015 at the earliest, as follows from the response of the Ministry of the Interior to the intervention of several NGOs offering legal aid for foreigners applying for refugee status. Yet the end date for the projects that are currently providing such aid is 31 December 2014. As for projects covering returning foreigners, they are expiring on 30 June 2015.
“Without this funding non-governmental organisations will be unable to maintain the existing scale of support, and the demand is enormous”, says Ms Rusiłowicz. “In addition, Poland is obliged under EU directives to ensure legal aid for foreigners seeking protection as well as those who return to their home countries.”
Moreover, during consultation on the final shape of the Fund, the HFHR indicated a number of priorities including developing and introducing a programme of voluntary relocations of foreigners and creating a system to identify foreigners’ groups in need of special treatment before a decision to place them in a guarded centre is taken.
As part of the AMIF National Programme for the years 2014-2020 Poland will be applying for over EUR 63 million, half of which is to be allocated for integration of migrants and the rest – for priorities involving international protection and returns of foreigners.
