Attachments
Highlights
- In 2024, floods, landslides, and mudflows affected nearly 149,000 children and families in Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, causing loss of life, displacement, and disruption of essential services.
- Europe and Central Asian countries experienced a surge in measles cases throughout 2024, following a backsliding of immunization coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Between January to December 2024, an estimated 170,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Serbia, placing significant strain on existing services, further exacerbating vulnerabilities and creating additional challenges.
- UNICEF significantly enhanced its emergency preparedness and response capacities and addressed both sudden and slow-onset emergencies in collaboration with governments and partners, prioritizing life-saving support and protection across health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), child protection, social protection, and social behaviour change (SBC) programmes.
- At of the end of 2024, UNICEF had received US$12 million against its US$39.6 million funding requirement. This, in addition to US$8.1 million carry-over funds, resulted in an overall funding gap of 49 per cent. UNICEF is grateful to all donors for their continued, generous, and important contributions.
Regional Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
In 2024, natural hazards including floods, landslides and mudflows affected nearly 130,000 people in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan causing casualties, evacuations and displacement, damage to residential houses and infrastructure, and power cuts. In Tajikistan, nine people died, including five children, and 1,715 households were affected, displacing 8,690 people, of whom 5,464 were children. In Kazakhstan, 119,000 people, including 44,400 children, were rescued and evacuated due to heavy flooding between April and May 2024, with emergencies declared in 10 out of 17 regions. In Kyrgyzstan, 331 incidents of floods and mudflows affected several provinces killing five people and affecting around 2,000 people.
Vaccine hesitancy, inadequate health personnel capacities and health system level issues have caused declining coverage rates for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) immunization across the region, ranging from 73 per cent to 86 per cent for MMR1 and 87 per cent to 94 per cent for MMR2, emphasizing the need for improved vaccine uptake through stronger engagement with communities and support to immunization programmes. The highest number of measles cases were reported in Kazakhstan (28,147 cases), the Russian Federation (22,706 cases), Azerbaijan (16,690 cases), Kyrgyzstan (13,961 cases), Romania (12,040 cases), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (1,680 cases). UNICEF is working with country offices, governments, and partners such as WHO and GAVI to address the outbreak, through community engagement, immunization programmes strengthening and measles campaigns.
In particular, Azerbaijan, once maintaining high vaccination rates, saw immunization coverage decline post-2020 due to COVID-19 disruptions, leading to a surge in measles reaching a total of 16,690 cases with 13,466 cases in 2024 alone. Contributing factors included missed vaccinations, unreliable data, and limited health services. In Abkhazia, Georgia, ongoing conflict has severely weakened health systems, with DTP3 coverage at 12 months dropping below 30 per cent and MMR1 coverage equally low, fuelling concerns of measles, rubella, polio, and diphtheria outbreaks. Despite UNICEF’s efforts, shortages of essential medicines and trained health personnel persist, exacerbating public health risks.
The influx of refugee and migrants into ECA continued in 2024 necessitating ongoing humanitarian support. A significant political development was the agreement by EU Member States on the new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum adopted in May 2024, which presents an important step towards a more predictable system for managing migration and establishing a common asylum system. With the deadline for the transmission of National Implementation Plans passing in December 2024, EU Member States will need to review existing national legislation to align with the new Pact and require support for implementation in a manner which safeguards children’s rights and puts their protection at the fore.
In Albania, an estimated 2,400 Afghan refugees arrived in the country last year, for an average stay of two to four weeks. Albania is part of an official agreement between the United States and the Government of Albania to host Afghan refugees while they are vetted for US visas.
In Bulgaria, 53,519 refugees and migrants attempted entry in 2024, with about 8,986 entering the country. One in three asylum seekers were children. More than 2,601 unaccompanied and separated children were identified in Bulgaria during the year. Reception centres struggled to maintain basic services, security and hygiene, while educational enrolment for asylum-seeking children remained low. in Bosnia and Herzegovina, an estimated 39,773 refugees and migrants arrived in 2024, including 14,537 children, 6,447 of whom were unaccompanied and separated.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, which serves as a transit country for those heading to Western Europe, hosted four temporary reception centres in 2024 providing support to families as well as unaccompanied and separated children. Efforts to enhance services are ongoing, but concerns remain about the lack of family-based care for younger unaccompanied children and the need for improved mental health support due to reports of violent pushbacks at borders.
In Greece, a total of 51,620 refugees and migrants arrived in 2024, as per the latest available data, and mainly by sea. One in three people arriving by sea in 2024 was a child, a significant increase from previous years. Many children continue to live in overcrowded reception centres, awaiting placement in shelters, with inadequate child protection services despite progress being made in this area.
In Italy, 53,000 refugee and migrant arrivals were recorded by the end of 2024, 20 per cent of whom were children and adolescents. The Italian reception system housed 27,828 unaccompanied children, with support services often inadequate, exposing them to further risks. Italian authorities reviewed existing legislation following the European Union Pact on Migration and Asylum for better safeguarding.
Serbia registered 19,603 refugee and migrant arrivals in 2024, who often avoided state-run facilities, and opt for privately arranged accommodations, heightening their vulnerability. The government requested enhanced collaboration among stakeholders to improve services, particularly for children and women.
Across these countries, the impact on vulnerable refugee and migrants, including children and women, was significant, with shared challenges including limited access to essential services, heightened risks of exploitation and violence, and inadequate support systems. Coordinated efforts among governmental and non-governmental stakeholders remained crucial to addressing these vulnerabilities and ensuring comprehensive protection for migrant populations, as these efforts covered critical gaps in ensuring the rights of the refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant children