HIGHLIGHTS AND STATISTICS
The number of new refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in Serbia rose to close to 4,700. 80% were accommodated in governmental facilities, including 1,432 in the five Asylum Centres and 2,368 in Refugee Aid Points/Reception Centre.
Authorities, UNHCR, partners and refugee community leaders continued to encourage asylum-seekers to move to governmental centres instead of camping in the open close to the Hungarian border. Consequently, the number of asylum seekers staying on Serbian soil in front of the Hungarian “transit zones” at Horgos I and Kelebija border-crossings shrunk to 280 (down from over 1,000 on 14 July).
On 29 August, three fully renovated barracks at Krnjaca Asylum Centre (AC) in Belgrade, with a capacity to house 200 asylum-seekers, were opened by the Serbian Commissioner for Refugees and Migration (SCRM), the CRS Regional Coordinator, the UNHCR Representative and the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation. Their reconstruction had been implemented by the Divac Foundation under the CRS programme with US funding.
The maximum capacity of Krnjaca AC stands at 750-800, with 600 places now suitable for disabled-friendly longer-term stay.195 persons expressed their intent to seek asylum in Serbia, bringing the total for August to 1,935 and for the whole year to 8,071. Jan-July 2016, the Asylum Office of the border-guards issued 50 first instance decisions, which granted subsidiary protection to 16 applicants and refugee status to ten, while rejecting 24 [compared to 16 decisions Jan-July 2015: 14 refugee status and two rejections].