Combined Monthly Europe Population Movement Operations Update
A. Major developments by country
Italy
The main route remains to be Southern Italy (especially Sicily) as first entry points from the North African coasts. In 2015, according to the UNHCR,153,842 arrivals arrived in Italy by boats mainly from North African countries. In 2016, 47,820 people have arrived in Italy by sea (UNHCR- 2 June 2016).
Turkey
The over four-year crisis in Syria has displaced more than 4 million people into the neighbouring countries. As of 19 May 2016, there are over 2.7 million Syrian people living in Turkey and as of 15 May 2016, there are 262,129 people living in camps under the protection of the Turkish government. The remaining displaced Syrians are living outside the camps in urban areas in Turkey.
Greece
In May 1,465 of people arrived to Greece by sea. This is 40.13% less than in the previous month (3,650 arrivals).
While in the past weeks we have seen several tragic incidents and thousands of people rescued in the Central Mediterranean route, the sea arrivals trends in this route remains similar to that of the previous year.
The Greek Government’s efforts to increase the current reception capacity are on-going. According to the Alternate Minister for Migration Policy, 40,000 - 45,000 accommodation places were made available across the country in the past two months. The Alternate Minister for Migration Policy and the Regional Governor of Central Macedonia agreed that the refugee population present in Greece will be distributed fairly across the country by September 2016. The Minister explained that many of the current sites in Central Macedonia will close and be replaced by new sites across Greece. 2 On 26 May, according to central Greek authorities, all refugees and migrants were evacuated from Idomeni. The Police have yet to confirm the official figures. UNHCR is in the process of collecting information on nationality breakdowns per site and additional interpreters are deployed through UNHCR’s partners to support UNHCR in protection monitoring.
Conditions in the Reception and Identification Centres on the Greek islands continue to be dire, particularly for people with specific needs. This has led to increased tensions and to some protests On Samos, some clashes broke out at the hotspot between Algerian and Pakistani nationals. Six people were hospitalized and between 30 and 40 Algerian and Pakistani nationals were arrested. This follows a similar clash in Lesvos the previous day, when severe fighting between Afghan and Pakistani nationals erupted on 1 June. A rub hall was burnt to the ground and several people were taken to hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
So far, 1,142 asylum seekers have been relocated from Greece to 19 EU countries and Switzerland. (Source: European Commission data, as of 31 May).
Western Balkans corridor (Albania, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia) and Hungary
On 5 April, Albania and Italy signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen border checks and patrols. With the closing of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greek border for migrants, there are now concerns that the migrants might try to cross into Albania and to enter Italy from there. According to the Minister of Social Welfare of Albania, the country is ready to handle an influx of migrants and children will be accommodated in special centres.
Currently, the open regime reception centre for asylum seekers in Babrru, Tirana accommodates 140 people, while the closed regime holding centre in Vora, Tirana holds one migrant.
In Bulgaria, on 27 April, following tighter controls on the Aegean by the combined efforts of patrol ships from NATO, Greece and Turkey after the activation of the EU-Turkey agreement, refugees have started taking different routes to central Europe. Despite posing greater risks, one of them is via Bulgaria, which nearly 200 migrants are arrested every day. On 28 April, a total of 29 refugees were caught near Montana by a special police operation. 11 people were found (7 Pakistanis and 4 Afghans) who had been registered at the State Agency for Refugees. Currently, three a total of 757 migrants accommodated in open regime centres and 12,866 registered migrants between January 1 and 28 April 2016 in closed regime centres.
The initial figure of stranded people in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on 19 February 2016 was 1,600 people, although by May the figure has gone own by half. However, since March 2016, the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia passed a decision for the Red Cross to be assigned as the lead agency for distribution of all humanitarian assistance (food and non-food items), particularly for running the kitchens for provision of food for the migrants in the country. As a result of the changed situation after February 2016 and in compliance with the previously adopted contingency plan of the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for possible shelter of 2,000 migrants, the National Society aims to support this group of present migrants in the country until the end of 2016.3 According to the independent.uk4 news media, there is no plan as what to do with migrants accommodated at the Tabanovce and Gevgelija centres since western countries closed their borders for migrants, Greece started returning them to Turkey and there is still no bilateral agreement between the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece, which has been recommended by the European Commission for overcoming the situation of stranded migrants. Currently, there are 821 migrants in the open regime centre for asylum seekers in Vizbegovo, Skopje
On 19 April in Montenegro, relevant agencies started to prepare plans on how to cope with refugees if they start passing through Montenegro on their way towards Western Europe. The country is preparing capacities to take in up to 2,000 migrants.
In Serbia, the number of asylum seekers near the “transit zones” at the border with Hungary again grew from 350 to over 440 on 1 June. Of those, some 39% were children, suffering under the lack of sufficient shelter, sanitary facilities and other basic services. 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).
In the east of Serbia, the Reception Centre (RC) in Presevo accommodated between 87 and 100 refugees up to 1 June 2016. In addition, 62 new arrivals, many arriving in bad state and exhausted, were also temporarily accommodated there before departing to assigned asylum centres. All necessary assistance was provided by the Serbian Red Cross, UNICEF, Indigo, BCM, ADRA, ATINA, Grupa 484, Humedica SOS children Villages, DRC, Save the Children, Care, REMAR and Philanthropy.
In Belgrade, 28 irregular arrivals coming from Bulgaria were observed and assisted in the East. They comprised refugees of different nationalities, including children. Some of them who expressed an intent to seek asylum in Serbia were referred to and transferred to Krnjaca Asylum Centre. On 30 May, Refugee Aid Miksaliste has re-opened in a new facility at Gavrila Principa 15.
In the North of Serbia, between 350 and 447 asylum seekers, mainly women and children, camped outside the “transit zones” at Kelebija and Horgos I border crossings for days in the open, without shelter or access to sanitary facilities. 94 were admitted into Hungarian asylum procedures, i.e. around 30 per day. The authorities of Hungary continued admitting around 30 asylum seekers per day.
On 24 May, Greek officials started to move some 8,400 people from the makeshift camp in Idomeni to reception centres elsewhere in the country. Hungarian authorities said some people had managed to make their way up the migrant route, despite the border closure imposed in mid-February by many Balkan states in a bid to halt the influx to northern Europe.
The daily number of illegal entries in Hungary has risen from 70 to 90 people, to between 100 and 150 since Idomeni was evacuated. As a result, according to authorities, the government will install "permanent barriers" in places where the barbed wire is considered "no longer sufficient" to keep the migrants out. On 30 May, the Hungarian authorities informed starting to reinforce its anti-migrant fence on the Serbian border following an increase in arrivals after the evacuation of Idomeni camp. On 2 May a new, open-regime temporary tent reception centre was opened in Kormend and will offer capacity for 300 migrants.
As the waves of migrants began to reach the country, the Croatian government set up the first refugee camp for 5,000 people near the border with Serbia. This was followed by a second camp for 15,000 persons, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. All the refugees were housed in military tents and processed here but registration details were not shared with other Member States in order to avoid later returns as stipulated by the Dublin Regulation. (This said that migrants were the responsibility of the country into which they had first entered the EU).
One of the main state undertakings during the height of the migrant flow was to provide transit facilities to the Hungarian and Slovenian borders but this came to an end with the abrupt closure of frontiers in March 2016.
Humanitarian aid was offered in camps in Opatovac and Slavonski Brod mainly by volunteers from civil society organizations. The Slavonski Brod camp became a place of forcible detention for many refugees. After the closure of the camp on 15 April, refugees who left either claimed asylum and were transferred to asylum seekers’ reception centers in Zagreb and Kutina in Croatia, or maintained the status of ‘irregular migrants’ and were transferred to a foreigners’ detention centre in Ježevo. Those, who had written confirmation that their return had been postponed, were accommodated in alternative detention centres. Returns of migrants to their previous country went on between mid-November 2015 and March 2016. The process began with the Slovenian police segregating all non-Syrian,
Afghan and Iraqi refugees for return and was soon adopted by all the police of the countries along the Balkan route.
The extreme tension caused by the closure of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia border meant that thousands of migrants massed on the Greek side found themselves in makeshift camps in squalid and insanitary conditions. This unhappy state of affairs meant that genuine asylum seekers were caught together with economic migrants in often inhuman conditions.
Although not a member of the Schengen area, Croatia is following the EU decision that migrants can only enter the EU Schengen area if they meet the official requirements of the zone i.e. wish to claim asylum or have been chosen on a case by case basis on humanitarian grounds. This has meant that migrant transit through Croatia has been brought to a halt. Like the Visegrad countries (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia) Croatia has also introduced amendments to its Foreigners Act that criminalize any effort by its citizens to assist a foreigner illicitly entering, transiting or residing in the country.5 In Croatia, as agreed at the EU Council, public debate on hosting and accommodating 1,617 refugees by the end of 2017 has been twofold. While on the one hand, the Croatian public has been welcoming and open to providing assistance to refugees from Syria and other war affected countries (their own war and refugee experience being a major factor), some are more wary and prefer to keep their distance, fearing to face future reality.
This fear primarily reflects fear of the different cultural and religious influences of the new comers as well as economic concerns as Croatians see the newcomers taking scarce employment opportunities in an already difficult market. The lack of any effective government communication policy has only made the public more fearful and done little to prepare Croatian society for such rapid and visible change.
Croatia is, however, willing to participate in the EU’s proposal to relocate and resettle refugees according to an agreed quota system. There is a plan to relocate and resettle 50 people from Italy, Greece and Turkey (one for one rule) in June and July and then 84 refugees every month until 2017, but the government does not appear to have either the operational capacity or resources to do it successfully. There are so far only poorly conceived integration programmes to accommodate the 170 people, who have obtained international protection status.