HIGHLIGHTS AND STATISTICS
On 01 June, two refugees/migrants possibly lost their lives in two separate tragic incidents on the Serbian-Hungarian border. An Afghan man reportedly went missing when pushed back from the Hungarian territory on a boat on the Tisa river. As authorities are still searching for him, it is feared that he may have drowned. Another refugee from Syria was fatally stabbed, allegedly by an Afghan man. Both police investigations are ongoing.
The number of asylum seekers near the “transit zones” at the border with Hungary again grew from 350 to over 440 on 01 June. Of those, some 39% were children, suffering under the lack of sufficient shelter, sanitary facilities and other basic services. The authorities of Hungary continued admitting around 30 asylum seekers per day. Of the estimated 300 irregular arrivals per day, UNHCR and partners encountered and assisted around 140.
Low number of departures, coupled by continued inflow of irregular arrivals has increased the estimated total number of refugees and migrants in Serbia to over 1,700.
During the reporting period, 61 persons expressed intent to seek asylum, bringing the total in the year 2016 to 3,413 (statistics courtesy of the Ministry of Interior).