EU has announced new actions to tackle irregular migration and forced displacement in the Horn of Africa

29 Apr 2016 02:03 PM

The European Commission has recently announced the approval of 10 new actions for an amount of €117 million in the Horn of Africa region under the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa.

EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, said: "In addition to the first set of actions worth €253 million decided in December, we now have a second set of actions worth €117 million, enabling the EU to provide substantial additional support to the many refugees, displaced persons and host communities in the Horn of Africa. We are working hard to move ahead with these new actions as fast and effectively as we did with those from December."

The package of actions consists of:

• sustainable development and protection programmes for refugees and host communities in Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya (€60 million);
• employment opportunities and technical skills for young people in peripheral areas of Coastal and North East Kenya (€12 million);
• the promotion of a culture of tolerance and dialogue in Somalia (€5 million);
• support to the people in Sudan, with two projects to strengthen the resilience of refugees, IDPs and returnees (€19 million) and a third project to improve food security policy and decision-making through data collection and analysis (€6 million);
  • a regional project to create a more conducive environment for legal migration and mobility within the countries of the Horn of Africa (€10 million), and
  • a regional project to provide capacity building support to promote greater resilience in the region (€5 million).

These actions will build on a previous package of actions worth €253 million for the Horn of Africa region adopted in December 2015. This was part of an ongoing response to the commitments made by the EU and African partners at the Valletta migration summit last November.

They also follow last week's announcement of 20 new measures worth €280 million for the Sahel region and Lake Chad Basin region decided last week. A first set of actions for this region worth €101 million had been approved in January 2016.

The actions announced recently will also contribute to deepening progress on high level dialogues on migration with African partners, at both national and regional level.

Background

The European Commission launched an “Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa” at the Valletta migration summit last November. The Fund is made up of €1.8 billion from the EU budget and European Develop­ment Fund, combined with contributions from EU Member States and other donors.

For more information:

FACTSHEET: Second package of measures approved to tackle the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement in the Horn of Africa