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Serbia + 7 more

UNHCR Serbia Update, 21 - 23 November 2016

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Highlights and Statistics

  • Authorities, UNHCR, and partners encountered a stable number of around 6,400 refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants. Over 5,200 (i.e. 81%) were accommodated in twelve governmental facilities, while the remainder were counted sleeping rough in Belgrade City centre or at the border with Hungary.

  • With all Asylum (AC) and Transit Centres (TC) fully occupied (see chart), newly registered asylum-seekers continued being referred to the Reception Centre (RC) of Presevo only. Supporting access to better accommodation and services and the decongesting of Belgrade city centre, UNHCR and partners transported 96 asylum seekers who received respective referral letters from the Belgrade police to Presevo RC. We arelooking forward to supporting the Asylum Office in starting registration and interviews in Presevo RC.

  • Several tragic incidents occurred on 21 November. A 26 year old man from Afghanistan was killed and another severely injured in a knife fight between smugglers and refugees/migrants in Belgrade city centre. The police investigation is ongoing. A 17 year old boy from Afghanistan suffered serious burns due to an electric shock from a wire on top of a train wagon at the Subotica train station and remains hospitalized in critical condition. His uncle, living in Belgium, immediately came to visit him to offer support and follow up on administrative procedures in the hospital. The same day, six refugee/migrant men called for help from a sealed train wagon at the Subotica train station, which had to be broken into by firefighters to free them. The six men reported that smugglers locked them in the wagon earlier in the morning, for euro 1,000 per person.

  • In the night of 22-23 November, authorities gathered refugee and migrant sans papier in the TC and other locations in/around Subotica town and boarded them on a train. 101 (99 men, 2 women) were subsequently received and accommodated at Presevo Reception Centre (RC).

  • We are grateful to French authorities for having accepted an Afghan Women-at-Risk and her child for resettlement. They departed on 23 November from Belgrade airport to France. UNHCR continues to promote and facilitate orderly legal pathways for refugees to safeguard family unity and access effective protection, which we hope to scale-up with increased registration, asylum-requests and -recognitions in Serbia.

  • 158 refugees/migrants registered intent to seek asylum, increasing the total for the month of November to 1,176, and for the year to 11,514