Daily Report
Planning and Preparation: The European Commission announced that they would allocate €83 million, under the new Emergency Assistance Instrument, to improve living conditions for refugees in Greece; with funding dispersed immediately to UNHCR (€25 million), the International Federation of the Red Cross and six international NGOs. EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, signed the first contracts in Athens under the new instrument for emergency support within the EU, set up to help Member States cope with crises, such as large numbers of refugees.
The European Commission further announced that regarding its commitment to accelerate the implementation of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey, the implementation of a new set of projects will receive EU support. A further €60 million will be allocated to DGMM to cover expenses for food, health care and accommodation of people who have been returned from Greece to Turkey. A further €50 million in humanitarian aid will address the immediate needs of Syrian refugees in Turkey.
Arrivals and Departures: Italian Interior Minister, Angelino Alfano, stated in a media interview that compared to last year, the number of people arriving irregularly to Italy by sea has increased by 4.7% in 2016. As such, he described the situation as “not an emergency nor is the reception system under collapse”.
In Greece, 134 people arrived on average to the islands in April.
There are currently 46,333 people located on the mainland and 7,645 on the islands. Of those on the islands, 5,844 have expressed intention to apply for asylum as of the 18 April.
Of the 2,671 relocation requests, 860 transfers took place so far. A total of 3,288 pledges have been made available by EU Member States as of 19 April.
Conditions of People: In Greece, the media reports that people who have been kept at the hotspots’ closed facilities on Lesvos and Chios islands, are gradually being released as they complete the maximum detention period of 25 days.
However, this does not imply that they have had their asylum claims processed. On Lesvos, people can be accommodated at the open facility in Kara Tepe awaiting the assessment of their asylum applications. On Chios, alternative open accommodation sites are overcrowded. UNHCR continues to collaborate with the authorities to promote alternatives to the restriction of liberty through the creation of new and/or expansion of already existing open sites on the islands.
Deaths at Sea: On Tuesday, a UNHCR team interviewed survivors of what could be one of the worst tragedies involving refugees and migrants in the last 12 months. If confirmed, as many as 500 people may have lost their lives when a large ship went down in the Mediterranean Sea at an unknown location between Libya and Italy. The 41 survivors (37 men, three women and a three-year-old child) were rescued by a merchant ship and taken to Kalamata, in the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece on 16 April. Those rescued include 23 Somalis, 11 Ethiopians, 6 Egyptians and a Sudanese.