The Italian Consortium of Solidarity (ICS) is calling on authorities in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which borders Slovenia, to not create alarmism over possible COVID-19 contagion due to the arrival of refugees on the Balkan route.
Human rights organization Amnesty International is accusing the Croatian border police of an unprecedented degree of brutality in their treatment of migrants. The NGO referred to personal accounts of six Pakistanis and Afghans as well as statements by attending physicians.
Nearly 1,800 cases of missing children among unaccompanied migrants in Germany have been registered, according to a parliamentary enquiry. The number, however, has been falling steadily.
In recent months there have been increasing reports, from humanitarian organizations and migrants themselves, about the mistreatment of migrants and refugees in Bosnia and Croatia. Now organizations like CARE International are calling on the international community to act.
Two migrant-aid organizations are accusing authorities in northeastern Italy of illegally returning asylum seekers to Slovenia. They also claim that readmission procedures between Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia prevent people from asking for asylum in the EU.
The Serbian government on Saturday announced it is deploying troops to the country's border with Croatia in order to "secure" and "protect" citizens and the residents of three migrant camps situated there.
Italy's northeastern province of Friuli Venezia Giulia has said that the Italian government will be drawing up urgent measures to counter the arrival of migrants via the Balkan route, while police say the situation is problematic in Trieste.
At the weekend, a Kurdish man in his fifties from the region of Erbil died in a hospital in Bosnia. He leaves behind a wife and four children who hope to seek asylum in Europe. His death comes a month after a fight at a migrant camp, during which he was "critically injured." Was his death a tragic accident or the result of something more sinister?
As the COVID-19 outbreak continues, the security minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina suggested that migrants should be deported from the country. He alleged that refugees and migrants posed an economic burden amid the pandemic — as well as a security threat. The mood against migrants in Bosnia is beginning to turn sour.
Bosnian authorities have begun to move hundreds of migrants from the border town of Bihac, transferring them into a nearby emergency tent camp, set up amid the coronavirus pandemic. The measures came in one day after local authorities on Monday cut off water supply to the Vucjak migrant camp in Bihac to put pressure on the government and NGOs to act quickly.
The Serbian government is temporarily not allowing undocumented migrants to leave hosting centers amid the coronavirus emergency.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said his country will in no way turn into a "parking lot" for tens or hundreds of thousands of migrants, following Turkey's decision to open its borders toward Greece to refugees on its soil.