Refugee

Refugee influx to Bulgaria is expected to increase amid the crisis in Iraq, State Agency for Refugees deputy chair Vasil Varbanov told the national radio.

Some 100 undocumented immigrants on Tuesday launched a hunger strike at a reception center in Paranesti, in the northern regional unit of Drama, demanding to be released after having been issued with documents suspending their deportation.

According to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, the detainees were recently transferred to the center from the eastern Aegean island of Samos.

Yazidis fleeing their hometown of Sinjar after it was attacked by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have started to settle in a camp established by Turkey’s disaster agency in the Zakho region of Northern Iraq.

Iraq is not far from Bulgaria and an eventual refugee influx is an immediate threat to EU external borders, caretaker Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov told the national radio.

The UN refugee agency said Tuesday it was poised to mount a massive aid operation for 500,000 Iraqis driven from their homes by jihadist rebels.
      

BELGRADE - Deputy Protector of Citizens Milos Jankovic has said that more than 4,000 migrants from Asian and African countries whose ultimate goal is reaching Western Europe countries expressed intention to seek asylum in Serbia in the first half of this year.

Turkish officials have confirmed they are studying a “vacancy map” to outline which areas and sectors in the country need Syrian employment, with the Labor Ministry and Interior Ministry working on a code to facilitate employment possibilities for Syrian refugees.

"More than 4,000 seek asylum in Serbia"

BELGRADE -- Deputy Citizens' Ombudsman Miloš Janković says there have been more than 4,000 migrants seeking asylum in Serbia in the first half of this year alone.

He pointed out that they are mostly citizens of Asian and African countries, and that their ultimate goal is to reach western Europe.

63 refugees, including 18 women and 16 children, have arrived in Bulgaria’s Varna on a ship.

Most of them said they were Afghani nationals and a small part of them said they were Syrian citizens, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).

Turkey's relief agency said Aug. 15 it was time for the world to start "sharing the burden" for the 1.2 million Syrian refugees it is hosting, especially those living outside of refugee camps.