Brussels, Belgium, 12 November 2025 —  The EU yesterday released its Union Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Plan - a long-awaited document which could have entrenched refugee resettlement as the EU’s key safe route, and demonstrated its leadership in advancing safe pathways for people in need of protection. 

Instead, the document reveals plans to dramatically cut the number of refugees and people in need of protection welcomed to EU member states over the next two years. 

According to the plan, EU states have committed to welcome just 15,230 people via resettlement and humanitarian admissions across both 2026 and 2027 - this marks an immense 75% drop on their pledge of 61,000 people for the years 2024 and 2025.

The Commission is yet to offer a breakdown of how many people would be welcomed through resettlement* and humanitarian admissions**. For comparison, in 2024 they pledged to take in 30,960 through resettlement alone, plus 30,000 via humanitarian admissions. In the next few years, both figures will be considerably lower. 

Even if EU states fulfilled the entire pledge of welcoming 15,230 people by resettlement alone, this would still account for less than 1% of the 2.5 million refugees estimated by UNHCR to be in need of resettlement in 2026.

A total of nine EU member states have pledged to participate in the scheme, marking a sharp decrease on the 14 states who took part in the last pledging cycle in 2024 and 2025, and 17 in 2023. The European Commission has not yet announced which states have made commitments for the coming years.

Even for those who made commitments, it’s not a given that these pledges will be fulfilled in practice. In recent years, EU states have consistently failed to reach their targets - collectively resettling just 11,827 refugees in 2024 (significantly short of their target of 15,000 for the year), and just 12,467 in 2023 (below their pledged 16,000), according to UNHCR’s Data Finder.

Equally concerning is the limited criteria of people who will qualify for resettlement. The Union Resettlement Plan outlines how resettlement (excluding humanitarian admission) will occur from “countries along the main migratory routes leading to the EU through the Mediterranean and Atlantic routes”, countries in the Americas with “socio-cultural ties that might foster integration”, and countries that the EU or member states have established or are hoping to strike migration deals with.

While every resettlement place is welcome and urgently needed, this approach fails to address the reality of resettlement needs. According to UNHCR, the top five refugee-hosting countries with the highest resettlement needs in 2026 will be Iran, Turkiye, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Uganda - many of which would not qualify for the criteria laid out above.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is calling for EU states to meet and surpass their meagre resettlement pledges, and ensure that resettlement continues to put protection concerns front and centre. Despite these low pledges, implementing the Union Resettlement Plan - a key part of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum - would make resettlement more stable and predictable, creating a strong foundation for the growth of these vital programmes in future.

Meron Ameha Knikman, the IRC’s Senior EU Advocacy Advisor, says:

“At a time when global support for refugees is dwindling, these low resettlement and humanitarian admission pledges are catastrophic. Safe routes are not an optional extra. They are a lifeline for some of the world’s most vulnerable people, an important expression of solidarity with the low and middle-income countries hosting 75% of the world’s refugees, and a key part of any well-functioning asylum system.

Safe routes like resettlement reduce the desperation that drives people onto ever more dangerous journeys in search of safety. Cutting the precious few safe channels that exist will not benefit anyone - neither people in search of protection, nor countries seeking to welcome people in a sustainable, humane and orderly way. 

The implementation of the Union Resettlement Plan, which the IRC has supported for years, offers real promise to entrench safe routes at the heart of the EU’s approach to asylum and migration. However, if it is to live up to its potential, EU states must dramatically step up their commitments and ensure that every single pledge becomes a reality. These safe routes must sit alongside, rather than replacing, the fundamental right for people to claim asylum, regardless of where they are from or how they reach Europe.”

Notes:

* Resettlement is an internationally-agreed framework, enabling the transfer of refugees who have already fled their country and been granted asylum in a second - such as Türkiye, Pakistan or Uganda - to a third country where they are granted a pathway to permanent residence.

** Humanitarian admission is another pathway which can be used in emergency situations when conflict or environmental catastrophe creates a sudden group of vulnerable, at-risk people who require urgent relocation.