Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

THESSALONIKI, Greece — The refugee crisis may have largely disappeared from the news in recent months, but it has not gone away.

Rather, it has festered as Western countries have been focused on more domestic concerns like presidential elections and terrorism, and knotty political issues across Europe.

More than 65 million people are currently displaced from their homes — the highest total since World War II more than 70 years ago. More than 10 million of them are Syrians.

Greece, still struggling to emerge from an extended financial and political crisis, has done its best to respond to the arrival of more than a million migrants in the past couple of years. The vast majority quickly passed through on their way to wealthier European Union states.

Today, in the wake of the agreement between Turkey and the European Union to halt the flow of refugees, some 60,000 remain in Greece. Most live in poorly funded, largely insecure camps, awaiting a decision on their asylum claim.

Their wait has now stretched to eight months, and most have little information on when a court will hear their case or on their chance of escaping their Greek limbo.

Here in Thessaloniki, Greece's second city, that's where the Mobile Info Team comes in. Created by a group of activists at the troubled Idomeni camp back in March, the team provides news and legal information to refugees — and is one of several such groups in Greece.

The Mobile Info Team visits the 10 camps in greater Thessaloniki on a rotating schedule, sitting with refugees for as long as it takes to explain a complex and often evolving legal process.

Amnesty International issued a report last month, detailing the "appalling conditions" of the camps in Greece.

To ensure the provision of accurate, current information, they constantly research the latest legal updates from EU bodies, the Greek government and the UN refugee agency, and stay in close touch with local lawyers and non-governmental organizations.

They work in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu, and have a strong presence on social media. On Facebook, the team is constantly dispelling rumors — like, for instance, that the U.S. and Canada are about to step up their acceptance of refugees, or that refugees should avoid being fingerprinted when they go in for interviews.

On Saturday I spoke with Khalid, an Iraqi refugee who works with the Mobile Info Team, and who asked that his last name not be used because he believes he is in danger.

The day before, he and the team visited Frakaport camp on the outskirts of town, meeting with dozens of refugees. One family they spoke to was worried about being separated from their son. Because he had just turned 18, asylum law saw him as an adult who would need to apply for family reunification on his own. Khalid's team planned to refer the case to the Greek Council for Refugees.

A couple of recent posts on the team's Facebook page seem to suggest better days on the horizon. During the second-to-last week of September, more people than ever before — 543, with France taking more than half (296) — were transferred from Greece to an EU country for relocation.

The previous one-week high of relocations had been 370, and the average was 151. In addition, EU relocation countries have in recent weeks become slightly less likely to reject incoming migrants.

But the team likes to put a rosy spin on its public postings because the reality is so bleak. A recent fire at the largest camp on the island of Lesbos led to the evacuation of some 4,000 residents.

Refugees at the Softex camp, just outside Thessaloniki, say that a series of sexual assaults have left young woman and girls too terrified to leave their tents at night. Amnesty International issued a report last month, detailing the "appalling conditions" of the camps in Greece.

Iraqis, Pakistanis and Afghans have the option of voluntary return, in which the International Organization for Migration funds their flight home. But Syrians are stuck here in Greece. Under the Turkey-EU deal, they are unable to go home, or even to Turkey, unless Greece decides to take them by ferry.

After their six-to-12-month review process, some are relocated to a country they don't like, says Khalid, while others are rejected and forced to stay in Greece.

Many of the latter end up attempting to sneak across the border to Turkey or to the EU. Khalid sees a lot of psychological problems in the camps, along with violent crime, and occasionally suicide.

Police are not allowed to patrol the camps because they are the territory of the Greek military. Some young men are targeted by the local mafia and start stealing or selling drugs.

All of which has begun to tax Greeks' famed hospitality. Many are becoming disenchanted with the refugee presence. Last week, hundreds of people in Chios turned out to protest building new camps on the Aegean island.

Also on Chios, two men recently attacked a migrant couple. In attempting to remove the woman's headscarf, they apparently forced her to have a miscarriage. Police have yet to charge the men.

More than half the Greeks surveyed in a recent Pew poll say the presence of refugees increases the likelihood of terrorism in their country, and nearly three in every four sees refugees as a burden in terms of jobs and social benefits.

Indeed, try explaining to young unemployed Greeks, or older Greeks whose pension has been cut, why the government is feeding and housing foreigners for free (though foreign aid groups are shouldering most of the burden).

Now comes word that Pakistan will expel some 1.5 million Afghan refugees by November. Many will surely return to their homeland, just across the border. But just as many may seek greener pastures in Europe.

How might Greece, Italy, and the EU handle the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Afghans?

The Mobile Info Team is funded by small, private donations, and Khalid says the organization is struggling to continue its work. If refugees no longer receive the desperately needed friendly counsel from outfits like the Mobile Info Team, they are sure to grow even more frustrated.

It's past time for Western governments to act — to provide greater funding for aid organizations, expedite the asylum procedures, and open their doors to more of the world's displaced, many feel.

"People are really, really desperate," said Khalid. "They arrived here to be safe, to have a future, but now they have nothing, except maybe an appointment in three or four months."

"What I always hear from them is, 'We want to go back to Syria because there we will die very fast, by a missile or a bomb. That would be better than here in the camps, where we are dying slowly.'"
 

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Five Syrian refugee children have been arrested and detained in Greece after they were found carrying plastic toy guns on their way to perform in a children's play.

The boys, aged between 12 and 16, were seized "on suspicion of being members of an armed group", and then allegedly detained, beaten and forced to strip naked.

International organisations have since condemned Greek police over the alleged misconduct. Amnesty International has accused Greek officers of committing human rights violations against children, describing the incident as "disturbing", while Save the Children said the incident served as a "reminder of the risks child refugees are facing every day in Greece".

The children, who were due to perform in a production about the Syrian conflict at a local cultural centre, were carrying their costumes and toy guns in a carrier bag when they were detained on the afternoon of 27 September.

They were stopped and searched by four police officers on motorbikes, who then called more officers for support.The children were then taken to Omonoia police station along with two older Syrian refugees, aged 24 and 21, who had been walking to the cultural centre with them.

The children's lawyer, Electra Koutra, has given an account of how the children said they were ill-treated in custody, verbally abused and forced to undress by two police officers.

Ms Kourta wrote in her full account published on Facebook: "The children were taken to a secluded room by two policemen, where they were asked to undress completely. When two of them refused to remove their underwear, police exercised physical violence on them, after which the one succumbed and removed it, while the other continued to object and, as a result, had his underwear forcibly removed.

"A third child also suffered physical violence, was made to bend while naked and four were asked to turn around themselves while naked more than once, so that the policemen would have the chance to have a good presentation and look of their child bodies and genitals.

"The last child in the row started crying and asking for his mother. The others advised him to undress, in order to not get beaten too. After that, they were asked to dress and were subsequently photographed by use of a policeman's cellphone, as a group and each one separately.

"They remained in a state of deprivation of freedom for more than six hours, amongst adult drug users and criminal abductors. As for water, they were advised, when they begged for it, to go drink directly from the police station's toilet which was impossible to approach because of the filth and odour. They were not allowed to use their cellphones for calling their parents."

After the children were released, volunteers reportedly asked police how they could report the incident, but were turned away. Later the children returned to the police station with their parents and a lawyer demanding to lodge a lawsuit.

Following a number of interviews and referrals between different services – which Ms Koutra said took several hours – they were reportedly informed that the Childrens' Department of the Central Police Directorate would take over the case.

The minister of public order in Greece said the public prosecutor has ordered a criminal investigation into the incident, but said he would not "rush to a conclusion" while the investigation is still underway.

In a statement, he said: "From the first moment, orders were given for details of the case to be submitted to the prosecution. At the same time the police started a disciplinary enquiry. The ministry investigates any case any breach of law and rules and it is known that I will show no mercy to any proven violation. But it won't rush to conclusion when the investigation is still running. It has caused great surprise that this allegation has been accepted without question when it's under investigation."

Amnesty International, which has documented numerous testimonies of refugees and migrants alleging ill-treatment by the Greek police in recent years, has condemned the alleged police conduct and said that if the allegations were true the Greek authorities must ensure criminal and disciplinary proceedings were taken as appropriate.

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's director for Europe, said: "The ridiculous elements of this case should not deflect attention from the extremely serious and deeply disturbing nature of the allegations against Greek police officers, who are accused of committing human rights violations against children in their custody during an identity check.

"If these allegations of beating and other ill-treatment are shown to be true, the Greek authorities must ensure that criminal and disciplinary proceedings are taken as appropriate. They should also look into whether racial profiling may have played a part in motivating these officers to inflict such ill-treatment on children."

Save the Children also condemned the incident, saying it highlighted the vulnerability of child refugees in Greece and describing the present conditions as "unacceptable".

Andreas Ring, Greece humanitarian representative for Save the Children, told The Independent: "It is unacceptable that children who survived years of violence and a notoriously dangerous journey to reach somewhere safe are now stranded in Greece, in conditions that are further traumatising them.

"The reported incident serves as a reminder of the risks child refugees are facing every day in Greece. Many are becoming more vulnerable to exploitation as families use up their resources while waiting for a decision on their asylum applications.

"Other children who arrived alone are having to wait in detention for months while their applications for family reunification are processed. In parallel, tensions with local communities are on the rise across the country.

"Both hosts and guests are losing patience with the asylum and national child protection systems that seem to be over-burdened and incapable of handling the added caseload of asylum seekers stranded in Greece."

Ms Koutra described the incident was a "landmark" case and concluded that police stops and searches "should be conducted in accordance with national and international law prohibiting discrimination, including ethnic profiling, ill-treatment, and arbitrary deprivation of liberty".

She added that police "should take particular notice of the vulnerability of children, and safeguard their dignity."

Greek police told Amnesty International on Friday 30 September they had begun a "disciplinary inquiry" to "determine the facts of the case".
 

Three boys stand on the beach, the wind whipping around their heads, facing each other in stony silence. A Mexican standoff. One of them starts crying. The other two have rubber rings, and he doesn't. He's not happy.

About 20 other children are screaming, running in and out of the sea, laughing and singing. It's hard to believe that, just a few months ago, these kids would have been being hoisted out of the same water by aid workers, having made the dangerous journey from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesvos by boat. The children, and a handful of adults, are being taught to swim by volunteers. And, apart from the child without the rubber ring, they all look joyful.

But the reminders of the journey they've been through are constant. One young Pakistani guy flings a clear, A5-sized plastic wallet at me, asking if I will look after it for him. He had been wearing it on a string around his neck, but he can't take it into the water. I nod and he runs into the sea. Inside the wallet are his identity papers, a bank card and a few phone numbers written in biro on lined paper. I basically hold his entire official existence in my hands.

Panagiotis Koulakos, a 20-year-old fireman and lifeguard with volunteer group Lifeguard Hellas, travels from Athens to Lesvos every week to teach the kids to swim. It's a big commitment, "but we have to do it", he says. The swimming lessons have roughly one teacher for every two children, and they encourage the kids to get into the water by splashing and bobbing up and down in the waves. Most children are desperate to get in, and have been impatiently waiting in the refugee camp for up to an hour – swimming costumes and all – so they can go and play in the sea.

It wasn't like this when Panagiotis started teaching the lessons three months ago. "At first, they were afraid of the water and they didn't know who we were," he says. "The first day they were very suspicious of us and wouldn't get in the water. Many of them were sitting on the beach and crying. They didn't even want to step in the water. But now they see us and they start yelling. And there were many kids, who I can't really call kids, they were like 18 years old, who didn't even know how to swim. In the first few days they learned how to float, and then they learned to swim by themselves. It was amazing." Now when the volunteers pitch up at the refugee camps, they can barely get the flotation devices out of the van before the kids mob them.

Manuel Blanco, another lifeguard volunteer with Spanish organisation Proem Aid says the swimming lessons were also designed to take children out of the tedious refugee camp routine. "Keep in mind that most of them had never seen the sea until the day they made the crossing from Turkey to Lesvos. Many of them were scared, because they first saw the sea at night, in the cold darkness. With classes we've managed to stop them being so afraid. We are changing that darkness with fun, games and light."

Refugees have been coming to Lesvos from Asia Minor for generations, but by the time migrants that started arriving in bigger numbers in late 2014, the island was woefully unprepared. Lesvos had only two working ambulances to serve its 86,000 residents. Years of government cuts and shaky employment across Lesvos and Greece itself have meant that the local response got off on the wrong foot and then hopped along on the wrong foot until August 2015.

Local hospital workers and coastguards became hugely overstretched, meaning that volunteers – who started to stream in from across the world last summer – and a bolstered NGO presence were crucial. As awareness of the crisis rose, so did the international response. "More than 850,000 refugees arrived in Greece during the course of 2015," says Roland Schönbauer, UNHCR spokesperson in Greece. "With ordinary services overwhelmed, support from local communities and volunteers was vital."

Despite the volunteer effort, many refugees find themselves at a dead end. Lots of those who arrived last summer have reached their European destinations, but people who arrived more recently find themselves in asylum limbo. Borders are closed and many people who are waiting for their asylum applications to be processed are stuck in Moria camp, a repurposed prison that refugees describe not as limbo but as hell. In mid-September, Moria was set alight after protests by asylum seekers who were stuck in the camp and feared they were about to be deported to Turkey. Some 4,000 people were evacuated.

The kids I watch being taught to swim are residents of PIKPA, a camp for vulnerable refugees set up by a psychologist. PIKPA's set in a former holiday camp, and kids have access to a small playground, regular meals and a steady stream of volunteers. But the fact is that they are still stuck. Refugees I speak to at PIKPA speak openly about the psychological trauma they endure. One Syrian woman tells of how she found the body of a person killed in an airstrike – "it was like mincemeat". She sees it in her sleep.

Mainly, the negative connotations of water crossings are what make the lessons here so important. Epilepsy, intellectual and developmental disorders and severe emotional disorders are the most common among children, according to a 2015 report I was shown by the International Medical Corps. PIKPA is a great example of mental health being prioritised, but it is a small camp and far from the normal refugee experience.

"Previous trauma – or survival of incidents at sea – mean that high numbers of refugees, both adults and children, face mental health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder," UNHCR's Schönbauer says. "Although mental health and psychosocial support activities have been implemented in most camps, there are still sites where these services are not offered."

The international response to the refugee crisis has been somewhat lacking, but the volunteer enthusiasm has provided a contrast. "We have many teams – we have many people from all over the world who come, we had some from Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the USA," Panagiotis says. The groups of young volunteers also, crucially, know how to make it a bit of fun for the kids. "The easiest way to teach them how to swim is not with pure teaching. They're kids, they want to play."
 

BUDAPEST – Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a leading backer of tighter immigration rules in the European Union, suffered a setback as a majority of Hungarian voters skipped a national referendum he had called to gauge support.

Turnout was below 40%, preliminary results showed, far short of the 50% threshold needed to make a referendum binding. Authorities said a large number of votes were invalid and counted as no shows.

More than 98% of those who took part in the ballot backed Mr. Orban and rejected an EU plan to relocate refugees under a mandatory quota system, officials said. Mr. Orban said it sent a clear signal to Brussels that EU members should be given full control over migration.

"We should be proud to be the first EU country to have expressed our views," he said.

Sunday's referendum was closely watched because Mr. Orban has taken the lead in campaigning against the open-door policy of several EU countries since hundreds of thousands of people from the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa crossed into the Continent last year.

He has clashed repeatedly with other EU leaders, notably German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has made the acceptance of refugees a cornerstone of her policy.

European Parliament Speaker Martin Schulz said the vote was "a dangerous game," according to an interview published Sunday by German daily Berliner Morgenpost, because it challenged the legality of European lawmaking.

But Ms. Merkel's approach has suffered setbacks at home, where an upstart anti-immigration movement outpolled her ruling conservative party in a recent state election and now has seats in 10 state parliaments.

Binding or not, the Hungarian referendum will have little immediate consequence on EU migration policy because Brussels has largely backed off trying to force through measures for greater burden-sharing among member countries.

Resistance to the relocation program in Hungary, and most Central and Eastern European countries, has led EU authorities to consider ways to better tighten the bloc's border while continuing to support asylum seekers, especially war refugees from Syria.

Mr. Orban says migrants represent a security threat because some Islamist radicals have made their way into the EU by posing as refugees.

Although Hungary's working population is expected to shrink by more than 10% over the next four years, Mr. Orban objects to allowing large numbers of refugees, especially Muslims, to settle in the country, saying they would threaten its ethnic cohesion.

At issue, he said in his Sunday address, is "who we want to coexist with, what will happen to our culture, our way of life, our hard-earned economic recovery, and what will happen to our Christian roots."

Left-leaning opposition party Egyutt said the outcome of the ballot was tantamount to a no-confidence vote. The far-right Jobbik Party, the second-most-popular party after Mr. Orban's ruling Fidesz Party, called for the premier's resignation.

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Friedrich Geiger contributed to this article.
 

GYOR, Hungary — During a recruiting fair at a police proving ground here, a gaggle of teenagers ogled a display of machine guns, batons and riot gear. A glossy flier held out the promise of rugged patrols in 4x4s, super-cool equipment to detect body heat, night-vision goggles and migrant-sniffing dogs.

Because that's how Hungary's new "border hunters" roll.

This nation that once sat behind the Iron Curtain is offering a rare glimpse into a world where the build-a-wall mentality to keep migrants out rules the land. On Sunday, Hungarians will cast ballots in a national referendum on European Union quotas for accepting asylum seekers, with polls showing an overwhelming majority of likely voters poised to reject them.

They may as well hang a sign at the border, critics say: Welcome to Hungary — the migrant's dystopia.

Donald Trump may want a wall, but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban — a vocal fan of Trump's immigration plan — has built one. Now, the nation is launching a massive recruitment drive for 3,000 "border hunters." Their mission: beef up an already formidable migrant blockade, turning Hungary into a global model of how to prevent even the most determined asylum seeker from slipping through.

"Hungary does not need a single migrant for the economy to work or the population to sustain itself or for the country to have a future," said Orban, who likened migration to "poison." He added, "Every single migrant poses a public security and terror risk."

Yet in a country where the Gestapo once hunted Jews and Cold War-era secret police ferreted out dissidents, some here say that the government is in danger of instilling a different kind of fear.

Orban's government is fueling the public rebellion against the mostly Muslim migrants, critics say, by financing a multimillion-euro campaign asking voters to reject E.U. quotas. Opponents call it the rise of state-sponsored hate speech.

In a widely distributed flier, the campaign is echoing Trump's claim last year that aggressive Muslim migration has turned some European neighborhoods into "no-go zones." In one series of national ads, billboards in cities, towns and villages asked Hungarians, "Did you know?" before answering their own question:

●"Since the beginning of the migration crisis more than 300 people died in terrorist attacks in Europe."
●"Since the beginning of the migration crisis, harassment against women in Europe increased dramatically."
●"The Paris attacks were carried out by migrants." Critics concede it is within the limits of freedom of expression for anti-migrant supporters to make such blanket claims. But what is extraordinary, they say, is the zeal with which the government itself has become a mouthpiece for ethnic and religious caricatures.

The Orban government, they argue, is mainstreaming racism.

"They have launched this extremely vile campaign to portray migrants as rapists and terrorists who can only be stopped if we put up walls to protect our Christian identity," said Márta Pardavi, co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. "To them, it doesn't matter that it's not true what they're saying. They have created a great opportunity for racists."

'Setting the agenda'

Europe's migrant flood of last year has slowed to a trickle, in part because of a tenuous E.U. deal with Turkey as well as a move by Balkan nations to shut their borders.

But hundreds of migrants are still slipping through, and more than 100,000 are stranded in the entry countries of Greece and Italy. All nations in the bloc, E.U. officials say, must share the burden and resettle a certain number of migrants determined by country size, population, economy and other factors.

But Hungary — along with Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia — is suing the E.U. to avoid taking in the 1,294 migrants the bloc says it must resettle. Sunday's referendum is ostensibly to block future quotas. But it has effectively become a referendum on migrants themselves.

Orban this week suggested one solution: setting up a "giant refugee city" in lawless Libya to process asylum seekers.

Balázs Hidvéghi, a spokesman for Orban's Fidesz Party, defended the "no" campaign and the hiring of border hunters, rejecting criticism as political correctness.

A former anti-communist activist turned populist nationalist, Orban last year took heat from his European peers for throwing up a fence to block the path of asylum seekers streaming into Europe from the war-torn Middle East. Yet Hidvéghi bragged that, for instance, the leader of Austria — who criticized Orban's hard-line stance — is out of a job, while Orban is stronger than ever.

"We are setting the agenda," Hidvéghi said.

One thing is relatively clear: Hungary's migrant blockade seems to be working.

From a peak of more than 13,000 migrants a day, Hungary has more or less snuffed out illegal migration. About 30 legal migrants a day are allowed into transit centers for processing, and even the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) concedes that very few illegal migrants appear to be getting through.

That is partly because since July, Hungarian police and soldiers — about 8,000 of them — have begun "escorting" back behind the fence any migrant found within five miles of Hungary's side of the border. Because the fence rests a few feet within Hungarian territory, the government says it is not technically expelling asylum seekers, a violation of international law.

The new border hunters will augment their efforts, officials say, by pairing with more experienced officers to spot migrants from towers and vehicles, track them and ultimately put them back behind the fence.

The UNHCR, however, says the policy appears to violate the Geneva Conventions. In addition, the UNHCR and Doctors Without Borders have documented allegations that the Hungarian police in more than 100 instances used excessive force to return migrants. Some interviewed migrants showed investigators dog bites, severe bruises and other injuries.

"It is a basic right that if a person wants to ask for asylum, they have the right to cross the border in an irregular manner and make such a request," said Ernö Simon, a senior spokesman for the UNHCR in Hungary.

Most migrants are simply seeking to transit Hungary to get to more generous nations such as Germany. But even some migrants who are permitted into Hungary are "treated like animals," according to a report released by Amnesty International.

In early August, according to Amnesty, more than half of the 1,200 asylum seekers residing in Hungary were under official detention. Former detainees reported beatings and threats of violence by Hungarian police and security guards.

Hungarian officials call such claims unfounded. Asked about allegations of mistreatment by migrants, Hidvéghi shrugged.

"Migrants have also said they came from Syria and turned out to be terrorists," he said.

Opponents think the government may move to pass more anti-migrant legislation based on the outcome of Sunday's vote. Polls show a large majority of likely voters set to reject the quotas — although turnout must exceed 50 percent to make the referendum valid. Some critics are calling for opponents to cast invalid ballots to try to nullify the results.

But whether because of the government campaign or not, many Hungarians seem to echo the sentiments of Daniel Kiss, a 17-year-old at the border hunters recruitment drive in this midsize city. He is eager to graduate high school next year, he said, and then become a border hunter to "defend my country."

"There are some migrants with goodwill, but the majority are aggressive," he said. "They just want to get across our border, and we can't allow that."



Gergo Saling in Budapest and Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin contributed to this report.
 

Over 98 percent of voters reject EU plans after less than 50 percent turn out for the referendum.

An overwhelming majority of Hungarians who voted in Sunday's referendum have rejected the European Union's plans to relocate refugees and migrants among member states.

However, turnout stood at 43.9 percent, the National Election Office said, below the 50 percent threshold for the vote to be valid.

With 99.25 percent of the votes counted, more than 3.2 million voters, or 98.3 percent of those who cast valid ballots, backed the government.

The government claimed a "sweeping victory" while analysts said that the result was an "embarrassing but not totally catastrophic defeat" for Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The invalid result, because of the low turnout, would make Orban's quest to persuade Brussels to drop the refugee quotas more difficult.

But in a "victory" speech on Sunday, Orban said the vote must be taken into account by EU decision makers.

"Thirteen years after a large majority of Hungarians voted at a referendum to join the European Union, today Hungarians made their voices heard again in a European issue," Orban told a news conference.

"We have achieved an outstanding result, because we have surpassed the outcome of the accession referendum."

Orban said he would submit an amendment to Hungary's constitution to put the result of the plebiscite into law.

The referendum asked: "Do you want the European Union to be able to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary even without the consent of Parliament?"

Before the referendum, Orban argued that "No" votes favoured Hungary's sovereignty and independence.

If a majority of voters agree, Hungary's parliament would pass legislation to advance the referendum's goal whether or not turnout was sufficient for a valid election, he said.

While the referendum has no binding legal consequences for the EU, Orban hoped its passage would increase pressure on Brussels.

"We are proud that we are the first" he said.

"Unfortunately, we are the only ones in the EU who managed to have a referendum on the migrant issue."

Separately from the referendum, the Orban government is also suing at the European Court of Justice because of the EU's 2015 decision to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from overburdened Greece and Italy.

Under the original plan, 1,294 asylum seekers would be moved to Hungary.

Polls show that the relentless campaign urging citizens to "send a message to Brussels", while associating migrants with terrorism, has increased xenophobia in Hungary.

Several opposition and civic groups have called on citizens to stay home and boycott the vote.

Others urged casting invalid ballots that would not count in the final tally, but still could be interpreted as rejecting the government's "zero migrants" policies.

Nearly 400,000 migrants passed through Hungary last year while making their way toward Western Europe.

Razor-wire fences erected on the border with Serbia and Croatia, along with new expulsion policies, have reduced the numbers significantly this year.

Last month, police reported either zero or just one migrant breaching Hungary's border area on 13 different days.

Hungary rejected over 80 percent of the asylum claims made in the country last year, one of the highest rates in the EU, according to Eurostat, the EU's statistical office.
 

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Low voter turnout invalidated Hungary's referendum on European Union refugee quotas, even though citizens voted overwhelmingly in support of the government's opposition to any future, mandatory EU plans to relocate asylum-seekers.

The government claimed a "sweeping victory," but analysts said that the result was an "embarrassing but not totally catastrophic defeat" for Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"We can be proud that we are the first and so far only member state of the European Union" to hold such a referendum, Orban told supporters after the results were known. "Hungarians were able to give their direct opinions on the issue of immigration."

Orban, who did not mention at all that the referendum was officially invalid, said he would present a proposal to amend the Constitution reflecting people's intentions. Orban, a right-wing populist, has challenged the EU's refugee policy, arguing that allowing the influx of larger numbers of Muslim migrants into Europe threatens Hungary and Europe's Christian identity and culture.

"The (European) Union's proposal is to let the migrants in and distribute them in mandatory fashion among the member states and for Brussels to decide about this distribution," Orban said. "Hungarians today considered this proposal and they rejected it. Hungarians decided that only us Hungarians can decide whom we want to live with."

"The question was 'Brussels or Budapest' and we decided this issue is exclusively the competence of Budapest," the prime minister said.

With 99.98 percent of the votes counted, more than 3.25 million voters — or 98.3 of those who cast valid ballots — backed the government. But turnout stood at 43.9 percent, the National Election Office said. At least 50 percent plus one of Hungary's 8.27 million voters needed to cast valid ballots for the referendum to be valid.

Nearly 4 percent of the votes were spoiled — twice as many as in any of the other four referenda held since 1997 — driving down the number of valid votes to 40.1 percent.

The referendum asked: "Do you want the European Union to be able to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary even without the consent of Parliament?"

Orban's Fidesz party claimed victory immediately after voting stations closed, with party vice chairman Gergely Gulyas saying it was a "sweeping victory for all those who reject the EU's mandatory, unlimited quotas."

At the same time, analysts said the relentless government campaign against the EU's refugee relocation schemes had oversaturated citizens.

"Orban was able to dominate public discourse with an issue in which the majority was on his side," said Tamas Boros, an analyst at Policy Solutions, a political research and consultancy firm. "But it seems he went too far and overestimated how much people's opinions are transformed into votes."

With a weak opposition in parliament and practically limitless campaign spending to promote the government position, the referendum's lack of validity was considered distressing for the government.

"Considering there was hardly any counter-campaign, that they spent some 50 million euros ($56.1 million) and everyone on the right took up the issues wholeheartedly, it's an embarrassing but not totally catastrophic defeat for Orban," Boros said. "It is his first national defeat since 2006, the first time in a decade that the prime minister cannot impose his will."

Orban argued that "No" votes favored Hungary's sovereignty and independence.

Orban, who wants individual EU member nations to have more power in the bloc's decision-making process, said he hopes anti-quota referendums would be held in other countries.

The invalid result because of the low turnout would make Orban's quest to persuade Brussels to drop the refugee quotas more difficult.

"With an invalid result, it is harder for Orban to claim he holds all the aces" against Brussels, Boros said. "The EU will see that while there is a majority against the quota, it's not the most important issue for Hungarians."

Separately from the referendum, the Orban government is also suing at the European Court of Justice because of the EU's 2015 decision to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from overburdened Greece and Italy. Under the original plan, 1,294 asylum seekers would be moved to Hungary.

Polls show that the relentless campaign urging citizens to "send a message to Brussels" while associating migrants with terrorism has increased xenophobia in Hungary.

Several opposition and civic groups have called on citizens to stay home and boycott the vote. Others urged casting invalid ballots that would not count in the final tally, but still could be interpreted as rejecting the government's "zero migrants" policies.

Nearly 400,000 migrants passed through Hungary last year while making their way toward Western Europe. Razor-wire fences erected on the border with Serbia and Croatia, along with new expulsion policies, have reduced the numbers significantly this year.

Last month, police reported either zero or just one migrant breaching Hungary's border area on 13 different days.

Hungary last year rejected over 80 percent of the asylum claims made in the country, one of the highest rates in the EU, according to Eurostat, the EU's statistical office. The country granted asylum to 508 refugees, rejected 2,917 applications and had nearly 37,000 claims still being processed.
 

Refugee children have reportedly been ordered to use separate toilets at a school in Italy after parents of existing pupils claimed they posed a "health risk".

Two children from Egypt and Ethiopia, aged nine and 11, were told by teachers to use separate bathrooms following claims from parents that their children risked "contracting diseases", according to La Stampa.

Despite being shown medical records that showed the children were in good health, two families reportedly took their children out of the school when the refugees were enrolled, while several others threatened to do so.

The private Catholic school in Cagliari, Sardinia, reportedly put separate toilets in place for the refugee children. The carers of the children, two lawyers who took them in after they lost their parents while making the sea crossing to Italy, said they were shocked by the segregation.

One of them, Antonella Taccori, told La Stampa: "During recess our children were immediately isolated, and it was not only because they are still not able to speak Italian. The behaviour of the other kids obviously reflects what they have heard at home... We hope the school will integrate the toilets again." The other carer, Marina Bardanzellu, said: "This does not happen when a child has a cough or cold. The health concerns are hiding real racism."

This year, from January to June, more than 10,500 unaccompanied children reached Italy by sea.

THE INDEPENDENT

The number of unaccompanied children who reached Italy by sea between January and June this year 10,500
 

At least 600 children have died this year trying to cross the Mediterranean sea in an attempt to escape war, poverty and persecution, Save the Children has said.

Data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and newly-analysed by the charity, highlights two children a day on average died or disappeared between 1 January and 26 September 2016. The figures have been released by Save the Children to coincide with the third anniversary of a shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy, in which more than 300 people were killed trying to reach Europe's shores.

Kevin Watkins, chief executive officer of the charity, said it was in the wake of the tragedy that European leaders promised "never again" as images of coffins and the wreck were brought to international attention.

"Since then more than 10,400 men, women and children have died or gone missing trying to reach Europe by sea," he added. "The Mediterranean sea has become an unmarked grave for children fleeing war, persecution and extreme poverty. Just this year, we estimate that at least 600 children have died crossing the sea – a rate of two a day.

"The international community cannot continue to ignore these tragedies – we have an obligation to protect children, be it here in Europe or during their treacherous journeys."

Save the Children said they have been working in Italian ports for more than eight years, helping to keep lone youngsters safe when they arrive on land. More than 20,600 child refugees and migrants have arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year, with 18,400 of these unaccompanied, the charity said.

In early September, Save the Children extended their operations to help save lives at sea by launching the search and rescue vessel Vos Hestia.

Through this, more than 700 people have been rescued from death in less than a month, including 85 children – some younger than five.
 

Five hundred refugees will be given places at "super asylum centres" under a Norwegian scheme to fast-track the best candidates into jobs.

The handpicked asylum seekers will sign motivational contracts and benefit from a performance-related cash bonus scheme for showing progress.

The first five super centres will open by the end of the year, ministers said. They are designed to give skilled migrants a level of Norwegian lan-guage and culture training that will equip them to find work as soon as possible.

Sylvi Listhaug, minister for immigration and integration from the rightwing Progress Party, part of the ruling coalition, said: "Setting up the centres is a key step in the government's drive to integrate the asylum seekers into our society."

The recruits will have to sign a contract promising a high level of motivation and should be prepared for tough demands on their performance, Ms Listhaug added. Those who did not fulfil their contracts would be moved back to ordinary asylum reception centres. The emphasis will be on learning Norwegian, with the bonus scheme linked to progress in language tests. Career counselling and job training are other key parts of the project.

Norway received 30,000 asylum seekers last year. "It is important to remember that integration is no quick fix. We want to be fair but for it to work we also have to make demands," Ms Listhaug said.

Critics called the super centres an elite project for a tiny minority. "We need to integrate many thousands of people and this only tends to 500," Helga Pedersen, from the Labour Party, said. "It is not enough to tackle the huge integration challenge we are having."

Bård Vegar Solhjell, of the Socialist Left Party, said that it was "a very bad solution. The aim must be to give all who will probably be granted residence in Norway good integration from day one."

The first five super centres will open in Oslo, Steinkjer, Larvik, Bodo and Kristiansand at a combined cost of £500,000. More are planned next year.
 

ISTANBUL, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) – As many as one million refugees, or one third of those being sheltered across Turkey, will have pre-paid debit cards as part of the European Union's multi-million-euro aid package.

NGOs in Turkey welcomed this project with cautious optimism, arguing it is "insufficient" to cope with the refugees' social and economic integration into local communities.

The EU introduced the program lately for refugees living outside camps under an agreement signed with Turkey in March with a view to curbing the illegal influx of refugees into Europe, under which the bloc agrees to offer six-billion-euro aid to those housed on Turkish soil.

Syrians will mostly benefit from the project that starts in October and runs until the end of 2017, in which they will have their debit cards credited with 100 Turkish liras (some 34 U.S. dollars) each month and can pay for food, clothing and health services.

Currently, only eight percent of the refugees in Turkey live in camps established by the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of Turkey (AFAD), while the rest are scattered across the country.

The debit cards are expected to reach one million refugees in urgent need.

In a tweet post, the EU's commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management described the project worth 348 million euros (391 million dollars) as a "ground-breaking humanitarian program to help refugees to lead dignified lives."

For NGOs in Turkey, however, the EU project is only a drop in the ocean.

According to representatives of the NGOs, the aid would fall short in reaching the most vulnerable ones as many refugees do not have any identity card provided by Turkish authorities since most of them sneaked into the country.

Refugees without IDs could neither benefit from the education and health services nor be eligible for receiving EU debit cards.

"Now this is the sixth year of the crisis and we have long passed the emergency action period," explained Metin Corabatir, director of the Research Center on Asylum and Migration.

In his view, the best solution would be the launch of projects that can help them to acquire a profession rather than get "save the day" kind of donations.

Corabatir argued that Syrian refugees in Turkey need "concrete and comprehensive" strategies that can help ease their integration into the Turkish society.

Veysel Ayhan, director of the International Middle East Peace Research Center (IMPR), agreed with Corabatir.

In Ayhan's opinion, the international community has no experience in dealing with a vast number of refugees living outside camps.

"That's why the international community lacks a concrete strategy," he said.

The IMPR, in cooperation with the UN refugee agency UNHCR, has been developing sustainable projects for Syrians living in Turkey, including organizing workshops and vocational courses.

Ayhan urged the EU to develop similar projects, "so that the refugees could survive here, earn their money and take care of their families."

Cigdem Usta, a corporate communication expert with "Hayata Destek Dernegi," or Support to Life, laid emphasis on the importance of the operational capacity and experience needed to implement the EU debit card project.

She called on the EU and the Turkish Red Crescent, the coordinator of the credit card project, to increase cooperation with the NGOs working on the field, as these groups have remarkable experience in dealing with refugees.

"So that new projects could be developed which would seek a permanent recovery in the lives of the Syrians," added Usta.

Some Syrian refugees living in Istanbul said they heard about the debit card project but do not know how it works and how they apply.

Unofficial figures show that some 500,000 Syrian refugees are living in the metropolis and most do not have any ID.

For them, the main problems are expensive rents and insufficient job opportunities.

Ahmad Mahmoud, 30, came to Turkey one and a half months ago through illegal border crossing. He has not been registered with any institution, neither has his family of four.

Mahmoud needs at least 2,000 Turkish liras (some 650 dollars) per month to survive in Istanbul, as house rent alone costs him 1,500 liras. He is paid only 1,000 liras for working with a travel company.

In the view of 26-year-old Mohammad Moustafa, the EU project could help a family of four but means nothing to a single person like him.

Moustafa is sharing a small flat with three others. With his 300-dollar salary, he pays his share of the rent, and "with the rest I eat and nothing more."
 

"Early November last year I was helping refugees off a sinking dinghy. We waded out and tried to keep everyone calm so the boat wouldn't capsize. A desperate mother and father, crying, handed over their baby to me. His or her skin was blue and their body was completely floppy. I've never known fear like that moment. I was sure that tiny little baby was dead," Jude Bennett remembers.

She gave the 18-month-old to nearby medics and was relieved to spot the family later amidst the chaos on the beach. The baby had started moving again. "That story is just one of thousands that volunteers experience," she says. "Working at sea it is hard to know what happens to anyone after you have initial contact. It is something that I have had to adjust to and accept."

Jude, a 36-year-old from Ireland, is the co-founder of Refugee Rescue, a group of around 30 extraordinary individuals who have given up their time and in some cases livelihoods to volunteer as search and rescue crew off the shores of the Greek island of Lesvos. Speaking via a Skype connection from Belfast, she looks and sounds tired. "Well, I am tired," she laughs.

The art curator's life has changed dramatically over the last year. Since an initial visit to Lesvos with friend and Refugee Rescue co-founder Joby Fox in November, she has sublet her room in Bristol, packed up yellow van Beryl with life jackets, radios and first aid kits, and driven all the way to Greece to volunteer her services on the front lines of the refugee crisis.

Over one million people arrived on Europe's southern shores or overland from Turkey in 2015, an exodus driven by the conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and fear of persecution or crippling poverty elsewhere. Around 4,000 of them died crossing the Mediterranean, thanks to overcrowded unsafe boats, a lack of lifejackets, and the fact that some refugees are simply herded onto a vessel and left to make their own way by traffickers. Many have never even seen the sea before, let alone navigated across a stormy ocean.

Despite the overwhelming scale of the crisis, Greenpeace and Medecins San Frontieres sent search and rescue response teams to Lesvos for a short while, Jude says, and most of the response has been civilian-led.

A generous donation secured the new charity an ex-RNLI Atlantic 75-class lifeboat from Portsmouth to assist the Greek coastguard and the few other rescue boats on the north shore struggling to cope with demand.

Since then, the skipper's log book shows that 2,549 men, women and children have been helped to safety by the 20-seater boat since Refugee Rescue's operations began.

It was an emotional day when Mo Chara, which means "my friend" in Gaelic, took to the waters of the Aegean for the first time, Jude says. "This is only the beginning," she remembers skipper Michael Cecil joking, but he was right.

Volunteers with the necessary boat handling and lifesaving skills were beginning to get in touch via Facebook and friends of friends, all of whom needed feeding and digs to sleep in. The team quickly set about converting Beryl into an eight-seater crew van.

There are usually three or four crew members and a co-ordinator based on Lesvos working with Refugee Rescue at any one time. They patrol at night, when most boats come in to avoid detection, assist the Greek coastguard in search operations, and respond to distress calls. Some nights, they might catch two hours' worth of sleep before heading out to another emergency.

The coastguard do their best, but the country's financial collapse and swingeing public sector cuts have hit the Greek emergency services hard: Mo Chara's crew report working with Greek rescue teams who don't have strong swimming skills or drysuits and wellies for working in winter weather. Many people of the island have become de-facto first responders, skipper Michael Cecil says.

"Some of the rescues undertaken by fishermen on Lesvos and some of the scenes they have witnessed should never be inflicted on anyone. The local cafe owners open their doors day and night to provide for those in need at huge costs to their businesses," he says. "The Greek islands have suffered immense environmental impact too, thanks to the mass influx of people and poorly planned settlement building."

Things can go bad on rescues very fast, Richie Heard, a lifeguard from Devon who has done two stints on Lesvos for Refugee Rescue says. Each mission is different and requires quick thinking. He remembers one occasion around sunrise when the radios and alarm phones started blaring and Mo Chara arrived first at the scene when an old double decker ferry carrying 177 people was heading towards a dangerous stretch of rocky coastline.

"We managed to gain their trust, keep things calm and get a tow line attached so we could safely get the boat landed. It was ten times the weight and size of our vessel," he says. "At one point it looked like it was going to strike the rocks and capsize."

Mo Chara uses roughly &;60 (£52) worth of petrol an hour when running at full speed during rescues, and needs constant maintenance so it meets safety requirements as an emergency vessel. When the boat first started operations in February, Jude and the other members of Refugee Rescue had raised enough in donations to keep going for around three weeks.

Now, thanks to constant fundraising efforts and the help of patron Jake Chapman and London-based charity Help Refugees, the team has expanded into about 25 rotating crew members. Three field coordinators, like Jude, also quit their jobs or went freelance to help out full time. It's still been touch and go – in the summer Joby and Jude thought they'd have to suspend operations come September for lack of funds – but things are running more smoothly now and the team can focus on making Refugee Rescue sustainable.

There is still a lot of work for Refugee Rescue to do. The controversial EU-Turkey deal, in which the country agreed to retake deported Syrians in exchange for financial assistance and talks on visa-free travel, has had the desired effect: the number of people coming to Greece dropped from 123,000 in January and February 2016 to just 26,360 for the month of April, after the deal came into force.

Yet more than 100,000 people have arrived in Lesvos on illegal and often unseaworthy boats since January according to UNHCR. As Jude points out, that may be fewer than arrived last year, but it's still an awful lot of people, and the real figure, once undocumented arrivals are factored in, is likely to be much higher.

Conditions for those that make it to Greece remain dire. Government data says there are 13,000 people currently living in camps on the five main islands between Turkey and Greece, all of which are over capacity. Refugees can be trapped for months at a time before they are deported. Earlier this month, a fire at the camp in Moria on Lesvos destroyed the only shelter for some 4,000 people.

Crossing the Med hasn't become safer either. Refugees making the journey in 2016 are now more likely to drown than last year, even though the number of people crossing has gone down. Most of the reason for this is because more people, usually African, are setting off from Libya and trying to make it to Italy. At 370 miles, the voyage is incomparable to the six mile hop between Turkey and Greece. North African people smugglers are vicious, and unlike in Turkey, fear little interference from the Libyan authorities, who are distracted by their own civil war.

Just last week a boat carrying around 600 people capsized after leaving Egypt. At least 170 bodies were recovered, but dozens are still missing. Fishermen helping at the scene were videoed using their nets to drag up corpses of the drowned. "The sea is littered with bodies," one of them shouts in the footage.

Mo Chara is too small to patrol the open seas of the central Mediterranean, although one coordinator, 28-year-old Max Avis who was previously based in London, is currently conducting search and rescue operations on a large boat in Libya.

On Lesvos, the nights are getting longer and colder as autumn sets in, and Refugee Rescue's volunteers are needed more than ever. "The boat numbers are increasing as the winter is coming. I am scared, it's so [financially] unstable," Jude says. Despite being flat out broke after volunteering for so long, she says in retrospect nothing would be different.

"The sense of despair is eased a little with the knowledge that there are humans who want to help," she says. "Refugee Rescue has impacted on my life – like many other volunteers I have hardly seen friends and family. But the 25 or so volunteer crew that have worked on Mo Chara so far are the most hard-working, inspiring, skilled and passionate people I have ever met."

In turn, the team themselves say they have learned from the people they've met on the water. Max Avis recalls a cold, rough night in March out on patrol when they heard screams coming from the darkness. "We prepared for the worst," he recalls. As Mo Chara approached the sound, however, it became apparent the 50 or so people on board were actually singing in happiness.

"That night showed me the strength of a group of people, the importance of unity in the face of adversity," he says. "The situation is hard to convey. You can't shut your eyes and pretend to be blind... reading about the crisis didn't prepare me for the reality. The closer you get to some things the less sense they make."

For more information on volunteering opportunities or to donate to Refugee Rescue's work, visit www.refugeerescue.co.uk

Meet the crew:

Name: Rob Weare

Age: 41

From: Devon

Occupation: Photographer, RNLI helmsman

"I have seen overloaded boats where some people chant with happiness and others are in deep shock. It still deeply affects me thinking back to those situations and seeing people with so little who are ready to risk so much with their young families. It's really heartbreaking."

--

Name: Eleuthera du Breuil

Age: 30

From: London

Occupation: Paramedic

"The look of relief on people's faces as they realised they were in Europe and safe is amazing. I knew that relief would diminish, however, when they realised how long they would be in the camps. Working on London ambulances I have seen some desperate people but until I held the tiny baby that had been thrust into my arms by a traumatised mother from a leaking dinghy I don't think I had ever understood true desperation."

--

Name: Alex Michie

Age: 26

From: London

Occupation: Economist

"One thing that caught me by surprise was the tiny size and immense beauty of the village where we were based, and where many of the refugees land. Gorgeous, glorious, and happy weddings taking place on a near daily basis – and so too, tragic wailing landings of refugees. There was a lot of life's extremes crammed into a tiny place."

--

Name: Adam Cantwell-Corn

Age: 26

From: Bristol

Occupation: Co-founder of The Bristol Cable media co-op

"We found about 40 people on the shore beneath a pretty sheer cliff. We start to identify who we can deal with – their state of calm, which language, groups with an English speaker who can communicate to others. "Where you from, brother?" I say to a guy in a New York baseball cap. Senegal. "Na'nga def" I say – by chance I know one word of Wolof. They look shocked but happy. "I'm from Senegal too," I say, shining the light on my white face. They laugh. Immediately, it's a group of four I can work with. Next, Iranian. Then, Syrian. OK good, a few ill-pronounced words. And so on.

"I have to yank a mother of about 60 in a hijab over the side. Neither of us care for social norms. One Afghani asks how many hours they will spend in the processing detention camps. I don't know, I say. I haven't got the heart to say it could be up to five months. It's not over yet for him."

--

Name: Richard Heard

Age: 32

From: Devon

Occupation: Lifeguard, tourism developer

"My motivation was simple: to make a positive impact on the world, and not sit back and watch it happening on TV. I hope that if I was ever in desperate need then someone else would drop what they are doing and help me."

--

Name: Konstantina (Deena) Sypsi

Age: 32

From: Greece

Occupation: Worked in advertising before volunteering full-time

"There have been incidents, like winter rescues in deep freezing water, that made me really proud of being part of this team, but what's most important is that Refugee Rescue never limit themselves to providing search and rescue skills. They always take it a step further with donations to camps, support to volunteers and fearlessly raising their voices against violations of human rights."

--

Name: Bill Drexel

Age: 23

From: Texas

Occupation: Student

"The first thing that struck me is that the real heroes are the villagers of Skala, where we were working. We were giving up time and money, perhaps, but they had effectively turned their village into a refugee reception centre while stomaching the severe economic repercussions that their tourist-based economy has suffered. When the crisis started, they were the first ones on the boats, and sacrificed a tremendous amount."

--

Name: Michael Cecil

Age: 46

From: Northern Ireland

Occupation: Skipper and mechanic

"Imagine yourself, as I do, living on the north coast of Ireland and something similar happened there, how would you cope? Would you be able to give all you can to people in need 24 hours a day, little or no state support and no end in sight to the situation? I will return to Lesvos, either soon as a volunteer or later as a guest: in the very short space of time that I was with them my life and my outlook on life has been changed forever."

--

Name: Max Avis

Age: 28

From: London

Occupation: Previously development work, now a coordinator for Refugee Rescue

"The closer you get to some things the less sense they make. Flimsy boats full of families, crossing in foul weather when the ferry costs &;10 (£9). Understanding teh cause doesn't help when you're lifting an infant out of a dinghy at sea. Recently, Jude emailed me to ask if I knew anyone who could act as coordinator out there. I said I would. I never really faced the decision, I just took each necessary step, I quit my job, packed my room, assembled a crew, etc... and then I was back on the boat."
 

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) – The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) expressed its concern that restrictions on the movement of people in eastern Ukraine have led to increased hardships and limited the access of thousands of people to deathcare and social payments, a UN spokesman told reporters here Friday.

The UN agency called on authorities to ease the plight of 26,000 people crossing the dividing line between government-controlled and non-government-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine, UN spokesman Stephan said at a daily news briefing here.

"The agency said that these people face exhausting procedures, including having to wait long hours in line to cross to see their relatives, purchase goods and medicines or resolve documentation issues in order to get their pensions and benefits," he said.

The conflicting sides in eastern Ukraine reported more combat casualties early this month among their soldiers despite a ceasefire that has been in place since Sept. 1.

The conflict that erupted in mid-April 2014 killed more than 9,500 people and injured some 22,000 others.