Unutilized Funds of €31 Million Returned to the State from the Refugee Allocation Fund

In 2025, €31 million from the budget of the Refugee Allocation Fund (RAF) remained unabsorbed and was returned to state funds. This amount adds to a total of €210 million that has not been absorbed over the past five years. The President of the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees, Nikos Kettiros, stated that these funds could have been used to meet the needs of the refugee community. Mr. Kettiros emphasized that the failure to absorb the funds validates AKEL's recent initiative to remove time restrictions on submitting applications for interest rate subsidies to the RAF, an initiative that was not supported by other parties. The return of the funds highlights the need to improve the RAF's efficiency in absorbing and allocating available resources to better serve the needs of beneficiaries. The issue was discussed by the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees during the examination of the Fund's budget for 2026, where the need for immediate action was identified.