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Roundup: EU spends millions to help Serbia with migrant crisis

Xinhua, September 30, 2016 Adjust font size:

EU has so far allocated 40 million euros (44.8 million U.S. dollars) since September 2015 as support to Serbia for managing refugee and migrant routes, an EU delegation here said Friday.

According to an official press release, the chief of the EU delegation Michael Davenport said that Serbia is recognized as a country which provides a significant contribution to the migrant crisis in a responsible and human way.

EU supports the authorities in Serbia at all levels in order to reduce the influence of the crisis on local communities, while the delegation and the Serbian government worked together on defining priorities to use the latest assistance in the best possible way.

It is also announced that in the following months and years, Serbia will benefit from significant additional financial means in the area of migrations and border management.

More than 10.7 million euros is allocated for construction and reconstruction of existing and new refugee shelters as well as the equipment, mobile teams, furniture and other needs.

EU is also funding electricity costs, heating, water, garbage disposal, sanitary services and cleaning: more than 460,000 euros this year and almost 2 million for the next year are allocated for this purpose, the release said.

More than 9.4 million euros is intended for salaries of the 273 employees of Serbia who work as coordinators, translators, administrative assistants and workers on maintenance in refugee shelters.

Another 7.5 million euros has been allocated for the protection of borders and the modernization of the border crossings while 3.8 million has been intended for food, 2.6 million for transport and logistics and 1.2 million for health care.

Managing, administration, computers, travel and communication are supported with 2 million euro, while 1 million is allocated for the reform of the national system of asylum. The sum of 750,000 euros is intended for the assisted return of migrants to their countries of origin.

Several members also provided bilateral assistance to Serbia, within the mechanism of the EU for civil protection, while Serbia received significant assistance from the EU within the regional program dedicated to the management of migrations with a budget of 8 million euro, the delegation said.

Since the beginning of 2015, more than 700,000 migrants from Africa and the Middle East passed across Serbia on their way to EU countries, while around 5,100 are currently here.(1 euro = 1.12 U.S. dollars) Endit