UNHCR Belgrade is scaling up its support to the Government in light of a surge of refugee arrivals at Serbia’s southern borders. Currently up to 2.000 refugees are crossing the border from FYROM every day, out of which roughly half register at the One-Stop Centre in Presevo.
“We understand that reception capacities in southern Serbia are stretched by increasing numbers of vulnerable refugees and will continue to help as much as we can,” said Hans Friedrich Schodder, UNHCR Representative, when meeting Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who is coordinating Serbia’s response, in Belgrade today.
Not only are more refugees crossing the borders, they have more pressing needs as they now include more babies and children, pregnant women, injured and exhausted people. UNHCR therefore welcomes and strongly supports the plan of the Serbian Government to provide food, water and other first aid immediately after entry, even before refugees reach the One-Stop Centre. Partners of the UN Refugee agency are already providing water, transport and information for especially vulnerable refugees between the green border and the Centre.
In addition, to augment the capacity of the Centre to register asylum-seekers, UNHCR is purchasing more registration equipment such as fingerprint scanners as well as 17 pavilions to increase shaded areas for the refugees.
The One-Stop Center in Presevo was opened a month ago by Minister Aleksandar Vulin and UNHCR’s Hans Friedrich Schodder. Since then, more than 30,000 asylum-seekers have been registered at the Centre. Assistance was extended to the most vulnerable, rising from around 500 every day one month ago to over 1,000 every day now. Excellent efforts by central and local authorities to improve services at the Centre continue to be supported through food, medicines and equipment provided by UNHCR and its partners. In all some 80,000 persons who expressed intent to seek asylum were registered in Serbia since 1 January.
Schodder very much appreciates the cooperation: “The authorities and the Serbian people have shown solidarity and asserted their proud tradition of making refugees feel welcome. Serbia’s humanitarian approach can serve as an example to other European countries who still wrongly treat refugees as irregular migrants.”
UNHCR opened its office in Belgrade in 1976. Since 1992 the UN Refugee Agency has assisted Serbia’s protection and integration of refugees, other displaced and stateless people with over 500 million Euros.
Contact: Mirjana Milenkovski, Public Information/Communications Unit, UNHCR Serbia Tel 011 3082 103; email: [email protected]
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