ICMC Releases Its Annual Report 2015

The International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) published today its Annual Report 2015, together with the Consolidated Financial Statements and Performance Report 2015.

The Annual Report 2015 is available in English:

• As a flip book online
• As a downloadable pdf

French and Spanish translations will be available in August in the Annual Reports section of the ICMC website.

Activities report

The Annual Report 2015 highlights ICMC’s activities and achievements during the past year, which witnessed a number of dramatic developments in migration and refugee movements, particularly from the Middle East. More than 1 million migrants, refugees and asylum seekers crossed the Mediterranean in search of safety and protection from persecution or of survival in the face of abject poverty and the absence of the rule of law in many countries. European countries struggled to establish adequate reception mechanisms, to process asylum requests, and to share responsibility for increasing numbers of new arrivals.

In this dramatic and “high pressure” context, ICMC continued to work with refugees and migrants, with compassion and sensitivity, and at all stages of their migration path. In particular:

• In Syria, more than 2,800 individuals received life-saving and a wide range of healthcare assistance.
• In Jordan, 4,121 Syrian and Jordanian households received either cash or in-kind assistance during the cold winter months.
• In Greece, ICMC deployed 44 experts to work within the operations of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) to receive, register, and provide assistance to refugees and migrants arriving at key entry points.
• In Turkey, the ICMC-managed Resettlement Support Center Turkey and Middle East interviewed 11,038 individuals referred by UNHCR for resettlement to the USA. 40% were Syrians.
• In the framework of the ICMC-UNHCR Resettlement Deployment Scheme, ICMC’s experts assessed the needs of 121,736 persons and referred 104, 570 persons for resettlement consideration to UNCHR. 33,656 of them were Syrian refugees.

In 2015, ICMC was again called to organize the civil society activities of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), which took place in Istanbul in October. For the first time in its history, the GFMD touched on issues related to forced migration and refugee protection.

Financial statements

During the past year, ICMC used 87% of the funds received from both institutional and private donors for direct project implementation, and reduced its structural costs to 13%, which represents a 2% reduction from the previous year.

Financial information can be found online in the Financial overview section of the ICMC website, as well as in the Consolidated Financial Statements and Performance Report 2015 (pdf, 6.9 MB).

At the launch of the Annual Report 2015 in Rome, Radio Vaticana interviewed our Operations team to find out more about the kind of assistance provided by ICMC in Syria. Listen to the interview on the Radio Vaticana website.