HIGHLIGHTS AND STATISTICS
During the first half of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence, UNHCR Serbia - together with partners and authorities - organized separate Focus Group Discussions with adult males, adult females, adolescent males and adolescent females in Principovac, Kikinda and Krnjaca centres, which discussed safety in the community, GBV, as well as challenges faced by women and girls. In addition, four Country Cultural Sessions were organized to equip frontline workers and authorities in Belgrade, Pirot and Presevo with cultural knowledge on Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan. UN Serbia will conduct more 16 Days Activities this week.
On 03 December, 4,400 new refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants were counted in Serbia, with 4,026 housed in 18 governmental centres. At least 68% are from so-called refugee-producing countries: Afghanistan (52%), Iraq (14%) and Syria (2%). 34% are children, 15% adult women and 51% adult men.
The Joint Assessment of Government Centres, available as pdf on the global UNHCR website as well as interactive link on the UNHCR Serbia website, is also available in Serbian language on the website of the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration. With over 30,000 hits, it remains the second most popular information tool of UNHCR in Europe.
On 28 November, the Psycho-Social Innovation Network (PIN), as part of its project supported by UNHCR, presented two studies, one on the situation of Refugees' mental health and the other on Challenges and potentials of refugee children.
29-30 November, UNHCR distributed further winter items, this time mainly winter boots, in all centres around Serbia.
UNHCR and partners assisted 132 new arrivals (as compared to 126 the previous week). Profiling of a sample in Belgrade showed that 15% were adult women, 34% children and 51% adult men. 46% originated from Afghanistan, 37% from Iraq, and 9% each from Syria or Iran. 73% entered Serbia from Bulgaria. Also the numbers of reported collective expulsions into Serbia stayed high: 98 from Romania (compared to 103 last week) and 96 from Croatia (99 last week).
UNHCR is grateful to the Government of Sweden for having accepted for resettlement a vulnerable single refugee mother, who, together with her two children, departed from Serbia this week.
In November, 549 persons registered intentions to seek asylum in Serbia. 53% were men, 15% women and 32% were filed for children. Almost all applicants were citizens of Afghanistan (26%), Iran (22%), Iraq (21%) or Pakistan (21%). The Asylum Office rejected one claim. Total positive first-instance decisions by the Asylum Office since the beginning of 2017 thus remained unchanged at 13.