200 MIGRANTS REPORTED IN PRESEVO PER DAY

15. June 2015.

Presevo – The UNHCR spokesperson Mirjana Milenkovski said that since June 5, 2015, the organization had distributed 619 hygienic and food packages to refugees in Presevo, who were mostly from Syria and Afghanistan.

They arrived to Serbia through Macedonia and expressed their intention to seek asylum.

Ms. Milenkovski stated that, according to the reports received by the UNHCR from the spot, there had recently been an increasing number of refugees coming to Serbia via Macedonia from war-torn areas of the Middle East and Afghanistan, as well as that 200 people daily seek help in the municipality of Presevo.

“Emergency reception of and assistance to refugees is organized in Presevo by the Red Cross and the Municipality, but there is no official reception for asylum seekers”, said Ms. Milenkovski.

The previous record for the number of asylum seekers was exceeded in the first five months of 2015, up to when 22, 182 persons sought asylum in Serbia, mostly citizens of Syria and Afghanistan, as well as nationals of Iraq, Eritrea and Somalia.

It is assumed that there is a far greater number of those who just pass through Serbia on their way to one of the countries of Western Europe, where they intend to seek asylum.

“People who come to Serbia, primarily to the municipality of Presevo, which is on the border with Macedonia, are exhausted and hungry and they need help and basic shelter. Those are people from war-torn countries, who come to Serbia in various ways, most often on foot, and among them there are a lot of women and children, as well as pregnant women, "said Ms. Milenkovski.

Ms. Milenkovski states that it is clear to the UNHCR that people fleeing from war-torn areas have the status of refugees, not of illegal immigrants.

“By international standards and laws of Serbia on asylum, when people cross borders fleeing war and persecution in their own countries, racial and religious intolerance, it is not considered illegal crossing because they run away from war ", Ms. Milenkovski said, noting that over the last five years, since the civil war had been going on in Syria, half of its population moved out of the country.

Ms. Milenkovski stated that there was no official reception center for refugees and asylum seekers in Presevo, but that they were referred to the asylum center in Banja Koviljaca and to four temporary asylum centers – those in Bogovadja Krnjaca, Sjenica and Tutin, all of which are under the jurisdiction of the Republican Commissariat for Refugees and Migration.

Source: Mondo and Coordination Body