Brussels/Belgrade (26 October 2015) - CARE welcomes new EU commitment to provide shelter to an additional 100,000 migrants and asylum-seekers arriving in the Balkans. However, with winter approaching and increasing numbers of women and children travelling to and through Europe, these commitments are completely insufficient to prevent suffering and fear on Europe’s borders.
CARE staff in Serbia and Croatia say the hardships endured by migrants and refugees are comparable to those they have witnessed in Somalia and Yemen, and the situation is deteriorating rapidly. Winter temperatures will be potentially life-threatening and many of those arriving are unprepared for the cold. People have travelled weeks or even months. They are increasingly weak and sick. There are reports of illnesses such as respiratory tract infections, diarrhea and pneumonia.
CARE warns that without further EU political action to ensure safer and more predictable routes, significantly increased humanitarian assistance and legal ways of seeking asylum there will soon be a first fatality among refugees in Europe from illness or hypothermia.
“It took the tragic death of a young boy for the world to truly wake up to the scale and horror of the Syrian war. I hope it will not take the death of a sick child or mother sleeping on the cold, muddy ground of Europe for our leaders to realise that what we’re doing is far from enough” says Wolfgang Jamann, CEO and Secretary General of CARE International.
Adding to the stress for refugees and migrants is the lack of planning, resulting in unpredictability around available routes and places to rest. Borders are being sporadically opened and shut, creating bottlenecks and frenzies, with no planning either for immediate needs or for the future. The disorganisation is so great that families are being split with terrified children separated from their parents.
On Sunday, leaders of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia met their counterparts from non-EU states Macedonia and Serbia for an EU mini-summit in Brussels to address the migrant crisis along the Western Balkans route. Some steps were taken to improve flow of information and develop a more unified response, but far from enough to ensure adequate reception, assistance and registration across Europe, and no evidence of the kind of solidarity and planning that will ensure the human suffering of those fleeing conflict is not worse next month or next year.
Media Contact:
Lucy Beck, Emergency Response, Communications
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