United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Representation in Cyprus

The United Nations refugee agency on Friday said government authorities in ethnically divided Cyprus have rounded up dozens of migrants and pushed them back inside a UN-controlled buffer zone that they crossed to seek asylum.

The government has announced that it has dispatched humanitarian aid to Cyprus to deal with an anticipated increase in refugee flows, at Nicosia's request.

The United Nations refugee agency said Friday it was "extremely concerned" over the return of more than 100 Syrian nationals from Cyprus to Lebanon without being screened to determine whether they need legal protection and who may be deported back to their war-wracked homeland.

The United Nations refugees agency UNHCR expressed concern on Thursday about Greek proposals to overhaul laws affecting asylum seekers, saying they could weaken the protection of refugees.

Registered asylum seekers in Serbia with legal permission to find their own accommodation are being turned down by "hundreds" of landlords, making the search for new homes difficult, says the NGO Crisis Response and Policy Centre, which mediates between landlords and asylum seekers.

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, has called for a sweeping reform of the European Union's refugee policy.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has issued an appeal for urgent action to address the "severe deterioration of the living conditions of refugees and migrants on Samos."

With an official capacity of up to 850 people, the center on the eastern Aegean island hosts some 2,000, the UNHCR said in a statement, adding that heavy rainfall last week "led to a situation of emergency."

BELGRADE - A very small number of refugees - 50-60 - have chosen to stay and live in Serbia instead of moving on, and now they should have the opportunity to contribute to Serbian society in a positive way, Hans Friedrich Schodder, the UNHCR chief in Serbia, said Thursday.

A very small number of refugees - 50-60 - have chosen to stay and live in Serbia instead of moving on, says Hans Friedrich Schodder.

Now they should have the opportunity to contribute to Serbian society in a positive way, the UNHCR chief in Serbia said on Thursday.

From the beginning of the year until the end of November, nearly 19 000 people sought asylum in Bulgaria.

This becomes evident from the latest statistics of the State Agency for Refugees (DAB), daily Dnevnik informs.

For comparison, the total number of asylum-seekers in 2014 was 11 000.