The European Commission has signed an agreement worth €7.3 million with the Serbian Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The funds will be used to provide adequate housing for refugees and migrants and to finance the operating costs of reception and transit centres, as well as centres for unaccompanied minors and to pay salaries of additionally engaged personnel.
The IOM has also launched the implementation of its agreement signed with the EU, in close cooperation with the Serbian authorities, which will include the providing of support worth around five million euros for the provision of adequate accommodation and basic living conditions for migrants and refugees, through the renovation of reception centres, and the provision of basic medical care to migrants.
This support will also ease the humane and dignified return of migrants on a voluntary basis, as well as the reintegration of rejected asylum seekers and irregular migrants wanting to return to their countries of origin
Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Ambassador Michael Davenport, said: “I am convinced that Serbia will, thanks to the additional help, continue to resolve the migrant crisis in a humane and responsible manner, as it has done since September 2015. The EU will continue to support the national government and local communities, and to work closely with other providers of assistance.”
EU assistance to Serbia in this domain since September 2015 has reached an excess of 50 million.