Brussels, 24/08/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 20 August, the European Commission announced that the EU had decided to provide €150,000 in emergency humanitarian aid in order to contribute to helping the migrants flooding Serbia en masse.
The funding, taken from the budget of the European Commission's humanitarian aid and civil protection department (ECHO), will be channelled through the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to help the Serbian Red Cross deliver much needed humanitarian assistance for three months to migrants and asylum seekers.
The aid will enable the food and hygiene needs of these people to be covered and will help migrants resume contact with members of their family. Reception centres for the migrants throughout Serbia, particularly the Presevo centre in the south of the country, will receive funding in order to help extremely vulnerable refugees, especially families with children. The aid will also target the migrants and temporary asylum seekers living in public parks and derelict buildings. Among these extremely vulnerable people, particular attention will be paid to women and children. The number of migrants flowing to Serbia to escape the conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan has increased considerably since September 2014. (Aminata Niang)