Northern, Western, Central and Southern Europe

Response in 2017

In 2017, some 172,300 refugees and migrants are known to have arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, including 119,350 to Italy, 29,700 to Greece and 22,100 to Spain. Overall, the number of arrivals in Europe decreased by 53 per cent compared 2016, largely due to a reduction in the numbers from Turkey to Greece (83 per cent reduction in 2017) and from northern Africa to Italy (34 per cent reduction in 2017). The over-all number of asylum applications lodged across in 38 European countries was 625,000, representing a 49 per cent decrease compared to 2016.
 
With mounting restrictions to access territory, refugees and migrants have attempted to use different and, at times, more dangerous routes to reach Europe. Aside from an increase in arrivals to Cyprus and Spain, UNHCR has also observed a larger number of arrivals through the Black Sea, a particularly treacherous route, where a number of concerns regarding disembarkation and reception remain. With access to Hungary having been almost completely curtailed, refugees and migrants attempted to re-enter the European Union (EU) in Croatia, passing through Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
 
During the reporting period UNHCR focused on safeguarding asylum space; access to territory and acceptable reception conditions and continued its protection work through monitoring to gather evidence, advocacy, legal aid and strategic litigation, public information as well as individual interventions when possible; prevented and resolved statelessness; and prevented and responded to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
 
Key priorities for the subregion in 2017 remained the protection of unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) and provision and support to national authorities for the identification of and appropriate assistance to other people with specific needs. UNHCR also continued to advocate for an expansion of resettlement programmes, and the introduction of other complementary pathways for people of concern. 

Operations

The operation in Greece is presented in a separate country chapter. Other UNHCR operations in the subregion are presented below. 

Anti-foreigner sentiment continued to grow in Central Europe in 2017, even if the number of asylum-seekers significantly decreased as compared to 2016. The protection space shrank, particularly in the Visegrad Four countries, where politicians’ anti-immigrant and anti-refugee rhetoric achieved new dimensions. Physical and legal barriers maintained, with credible reports of denial of asylum at the border in several countries like Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary, in some cases linked to excessive use of violence by police. Irregular crossing of borders resulted in casualties. Integration programmes continued to be insuccessful, while most of the asylum-seekers and refugees tried to move onwards searching for more conducive environments.
 
Against this background, UNHCR engaged with authorities, media and civil society to defend the right to seek asylum, the right to appropriate reception conditions, access to fair and quality procedures, and support for integration including access to health care and education. UNHCR also opposed the systematic detention of asylum-seekers, promoted the use of alternatives to detention and fought the detention of children.
 
UNHCR promoted new partnerships and innovative models to facilitate integration, including to explore further cooperation with private sector and municipalities. There were some important successes in access to education for children particularly in Bulgaria and Croatia where the authorities adopted an integration plan for 2017-2019.
 
UNHCR coordinated and supported judicial engagement in the region. In several countries, such as in Hungary and Poland, strategic litigation interventions complemented UNHCR’s advocacy efforts to improve access to territory, to reduce the use of detention, and to limit the number of substantive reports of use of excessive police force at the borders.
 
The Office organised workshops in Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland to strengthen the capacity of legal experts, including as regards litigation before the European Court of Human Rights and the EU Court of Justice. As of the end of the year UNHCR had intervened directly through third party interventions in more than ten cases.
 
Regarding statelessness, some progress was made in particular in Bulgaria where as a result of UNHCR’s sustained lobbying and expert support, a secondary legislation establishing detailed rules for the SDP was adopted. By the end of 2017 Bulgaria had granted status to 48 people.
 
As a part of the UNHCR pilot for the multi-year multi-partner planning, UNHCR in Northern Europe developed a five-year strategy together with partners and stakeholders, which allowed strengthening engagement with civil society and the private sector to explore ways of facilitating integration. In the reporting period, UNHCR sought to prevent restrictions and maintain standards in law, policy and practice by employing an integrated protection-strategic communications response, comprising detailed and principled law comments; presentations of these to parliamentary committees; bilateral meetings with Ministers and policy makers; coordination with NGO partners on advocacy messages; public speaking; strategic media presence; and training of lawyers and decision-makers with high reach out. As a result, UNHCR’s positions were widely known and some of the most drastic proposals were averted. To address multiple challenges with child protection systems in the region, UNHCR initiated a child protection innovation lab to be fully implemented in 2018, engaging all stakeholders involved in the reception of UASC, including government interlocutors, the Ombudsman’s Office for Children and UASC, to develop a pilot process to address challenges and gaps in the reception system of UASC in Sweden.
 
In Italy, UNHCR continued to advise governmental counterparts, Parliamentarians and other stakeholders on policy and legislative developments and provided technical support to the authorities with a view to strengthening their capacity to ensure adequate responses to the needs of people of concern. Great progress has been made in strengthening disembarkation procedures; providing new arrivals with information on international protection; as well as protection, identification and referral of people with specific needs. Counselling to people of concern was improved by provision of information on available services through a toll-free number. In the area of SGBV prevention and response, UNHCR entered a number of partnerships with local NGOs enhancing front-line operators and cultural mediators’ capacity on SGBV issues and promoting access to sexual and reproductive health and to services for SGBV survivors. Pilot projects to support the identification and training of guardians for UASC were tested and will be rolled out more widely in 2018.
 
Child protection was also a major priority in Cyprus, where UNHCR’s interventions facilitated the enrolment of all unaccompanied children in schools and the adoption of a more extensive assessment of their educational level and abilities. UNHCR also organized empowerment workshops for unaccompanied girls.
 
In Malta, UNHCR promoted social inclusion of refugees through extensive support provided to create the first refugee youth organization in Malta; the establishment of other refugee led organizations; training to refugee focal points; establishing of a working group on integration and engaged governmental job agencies and private enterprises to identify opportunities for refugees.
 
Spain has been marked by a doubling of the asylum applications to 32,000 in 2017 and a tripling of sea arrivals to the Andalusian coast (25,000). In consequence, UNHCR consolidated its protection presence at the main arrival points leading to better understanding of protection needs and facilitated access to asylum through better information and counselling.
 
All Offices in Western Europe focussed on  improving reception conditions and preventing SGBV, finding alternatives to detention, enhancing quality of asylum procedures, involving in judicial engagement, ensuring UASC’s protection, increasing legal pathways including family reunification; strengthening integration and eradicating statelessness.
In France where more reception places had to be created, UNHCR supported the identification and follow-up of asylum-seekers with special needs, continued visiting reception centres and offered technical expertise to the authorities. In Calais and Dunkirk, following the closure of camps, UNHCR actively followed-up on UASC protection, informing them on their rights and supporting their transfer to the United Kingdom under Dublin and Dubs programme. Thanks to UNHCR’s interventions in Austria, additional facilities for single women were created. In Belgium, UNHCR engaged the reception agency to better prevent and respond to SGBV in reception facilities.
 
In Germany, thanks to the engagement of the government, the international refugee policies, in particular in the preparations for a Global Compact on Refugees, could be further enhanced. Furthermore, UNHCR contributed to keeping resettlement and humanitarian admission on the political agenda and to an increased openness for significantly increasing the numbers of admissions.