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Serbia + 6 more

UNHCR Serbia Update, 4 - 10 September 2017

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HIGHLIGHTS AND STATISTICS

  • In another tragic accident at the Sid train station (West) at night of 09-10 September a young man from Algeria lost his life while another sustained severe burns. They reportedly were electrocuted when they climbed on the top of a train and touched overhead cables. The injured man was immediately transported to the hospital in Novi Sad and is reportedly not in a life threatening condition any longer.

  • On 04 September, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development invited UNHCR and UNICEF to a small ceremony at the “Jovan Ristic” primary school in Borca, Belgrade, which enrolled refugee and migrant children. While some refugee children have already started attending local schools, preparations are in full swing at all sites to arrange for the other children to enrol into public schools. UNHCR continued supporting these efforts, this week e.g. by providing transport for medical examinations and access to running water for a school in Presevo.

  • UNHCR Serbia and partners completed comprehensive delivery of Non Food Relief Items (NFI) - mainly funded by ECHO and Zara – to all 18 government centres. Over 24,400 pieces of clothing and underwear, 9,000 UNHCR plastic bags, 3,400 bedlinen sets, 3,300 hygiene kits, 2,900 pieces of footwear and 2,800 blankets were delivered to all centres. Distribution of the NFI to the beneficiaries by the authorities and partners is ongoing.

  • UNHCR is grateful to the Government of Sweden for having accepted two refugees from Afghanistan for resettlement. The two departed Belgrade this week.

  • 4,061 new refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants were counted in Serbia on 10 September. 3,754 were housed in 18 governmental centres (for more details, please see the below chart and the Joint Assessment of Government Centres). Though enough better capacities are available in other centres, over 300 men and boys remain accommodated in temporary emergency shelters (i.e. rub halls or tents) in Transit Centres near the borders to Croatia or Hungary.

  • UNHCR Serbia and partners continued encountering more new arrivals (117 this week as compared to 108 last week). Most were Yazidi families from Iraq, mainly arriving from Bulgaria.

  • UNHCR Serbia and partners collected testimonies of 52 collective pushbacks from Hungary, and 45 from Croatia, with most alleging to have been denied due access to asylum procedures there.

  • In August, 282 individuals registered intentions to seek asylum in Serbia. 50% were made by men, 6% by women and 44% were registered for children. Most applications were made by citizens of Pakistan (30%), Afghanistan (30%), Iraq (14%), Syria (6%), and other nationalities (19%). One person was granted refugee status, making it thus far the second positive decision since the start of the year.