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Serbia + 8 more

UNHCR Serbia Update, 18 - 24 September 2017

Attachments

HIGHLIGHTS AND STATISTICS

  • By 24 September authorities succeeded in enrolling over 400 – or some 50% of the around 800 new refugee children between the ages of 7 and 14 currently in Serbia - into formal school education. These include close to 300 children from twelve governmental centres, who attend regular primary schools outside their centres together with local children, as well as 107 children, who instead attend classes by local teachers in three Transit Centres in the North. UNHCR continued to strongly support national and local authorities as well as refugee children and families in accessing formal education.

  • This week, UNHCR and partners observed a rise of new arrivals, when they encountered 147 new asylum-seekers (compared to 97 last week), mostly Yasidi families from Iraq, who reported to have irregularly entered Serbia from Bulgaria.

  • As a result also the total number of new refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in Serbia, which had been falling since spring and stabilised over the last few weeks, grew again by some 200 to 4,257 that were counted on 24 September. 3,910 of them were housed in 18 governmental centres (please see the below chart and the Joint Assessment of Government Centres). As the temperatures began falling and enough better shelter remained available in Belgrade and elsewhere, over 300 men and boys remained accommodated in rub-halls or tents, mainly in Transit Centres near the Croatian border, which remained open to admitting unregistered migrant men.

  • A growing number of security incidents and crimes allegedly committed by unregistered migrant men from North Africa, led to concerns amongst the population of Sid but also amongst civil society organisations in Belgrade.

  • UNHCR and partners continued supporting authorities in protection monitoring, identification and addressing of specific needs, referrals, interpretation, non-food aid, information and counselling, sometimes 24/7 at 23 sites around the country.

  • UNHCR Serbia and partners collected testimonies of 201 collective pushbacks from Hungary, 46 from Croatia, with most alleging to have been denied due access to asylum procedures there. Also, 36 cases of pushbacks from Romania were reported.