About us

COMET: COMplementary pathways nETwork
COMET is a transnational partnership involving organisations from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and United Kingdom.

Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI)
co-developed humanitarian corridors, implemented in Italy since 2016 and winners of UNHCR’s Nansen Award for Europe in 2019.

UNHCR Italia
the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy.

Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME)
an association of FBOs, works on asylum and migration issues and, amongst others, is arguing for a safe passage “toolbox” for Europe.

Evangelische Kirche von Westfalia (EKvW)
manages the NeST community sponsorship programme for vulnerable refugees with the German Federal Government and other civil society organisations.

Associació Fons Català de Cooperació al Desenvolupament
acts as interlocutor nationally and in Catalonia for over 300 Catalonian municipalities co-financing international solidarity initiatives, including refugee reception.

Associazione Frantz Fanon (AFF)
provides psychological and psychotherapeutic support, cultural and ethnoclinical mediation and counselling for people who have experienced exile, professionals and social workers.

Forum réfugiés
manages academic and family reunification pathways from Niger to France through its teams based in both countries and links with universities and host communities.

INTERSOS
operates in Libya and Niger. It recently launched a pilot pathway for UNAMs in Niger to enter Italy and attend high school using a student visa.

Justice & Peace Netherlands
coordinates a Dutch community sponsorship movement through its Samen Hier network and is experienced in advocating, developing and implementing admission schemes.

MOSAICO
is a diaspora organisation founded by refugees from different countries. Its extremely wide network supports migrants and refugees with integration.

Migration Policy Institute Europe (MPIE)
is a research institute playing a key role in facilitating development of monitoring and evaluation within refugee resettlement and sponsorship programmes in Europe.

Proactiva Open Arms (POA)
is a Spanish NGO best known for SAR, educational and awareness-raising projects. It has access to two aircraft.

Refugees Welcome Italia (RW-I)
provides homestay accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers in Italy.

RESET
is the UK Community Sponsorship Learning Hub which enables communities to welcome refugees.

Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI) is responsible for project coordination.
Based on first-hand, long-standing experience in implementing Humanitarian Corridors (HC) and developing pre-departure and post arrival activities for beneficiaries, it will coordinate and facilitate co-design by all partners of methodology, eligibility criteria, common standards, shared operating procedures and tools for use throughout the project. In WP3, FCEI will coordinate matching beneficiaries to different programmes and host countries, implementation of the diverse pathways and delivery of pre-departure and post-arrival activities. At national level, it will host and support beneficiaries who have arrived in Italy via the HC admission pathway.

Acknowledging the minimal provision offered by the Italian welfare state to refugees, Refugees Welcome Italia (RW-I) will facilitate access to homestay accommodation as a form of second reception for certain selected refugees.

UNHCR, INTERSOS and Forum réfugiés (FR) will support the pre-departure phase (assessment, identification, interviewing and orientation) from bases on the field. Additionally, Intersos and FR will respectively implement at national level (Italy and France) a student pathway (for UNAMs) and a university pathway.

Evangelische Kirche von Westfalia (EKvW), Justice & Peace and Fons Català de Cooperacio al Desenvolupament (FCCD) will advocate for and implement additional places and complementary pathways at national level in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, Justice & Peace and Fons Català directly engaging with local municipalities.

Proactiva Open Arms (POA) will operate flights, making available to the project a private aircraft owned by one of its donors. It will also host on its school boat the final wrap-up conference in Barcelona.

Building on methodology and tools co-designed during WP2, Associazione Associazione Frantz Fanon (AFF), MOSAICO and RESET will lead and coordinate common post-arrival orientation for beneficiaries and host communities. Reset will focus on community building, whilst AFF and Mosaico will focus on ethno-psychological issues. Mosaico, thanks to its solid network of other diaspora organisations in host MS, will also promote collaboration and support among host communities, beneficiaries and local diaspora communities.

Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME) and Migration Policy Institute Europe (MPIE) will be in charge of project dissemination at EU level. MPIE will provide a monitoring and evaluation framework and will produce evidence-based research to create awareness of success factors and areas for improvement for the Action.