The Special Representative of the Secretary General on Migration and Refugees (SRSG), Ambassador Tomáš Boček, is conducting a fact-finding mission to Serbia and two transit zones in Hungary from 12 to 16 June 2017.
The Special Representative will visit various reception centres for migrants and refugees in Belgrade and other parts of Serbia, notably at the border with Croatia and Hungary. He will also have meetings with Serbian government officials, the Mayor of Belgrade, relevant international organisations, EU representatives as well as a number of national and international NGOs.
Ambassador Boček will, moreover, visit two transit zones in Röszke and Tompa in Hungary, where migrants are hosted and their asylum claims are processed.
Serbia and Hungary, two of the countries on the “Western Balkans route”, continue to experience an unprecedented situation as a result of recent massive arrivals of refugees and other migrants in Europe. The objective of Ambassador Boček’s fact-finding mission is to gather information on this situation and to develop proposals for concrete Council of Europe action to assist these two member States.
Following his visit to Serbia and the transit zones in Hungary, the Special Representative will publish a report setting out his conclusions and recommendations.
Many of them would inevitably focus on the protection of the most vulnerable refugee and migrant groups, in particular unaccompanied children, which is one of the Special Representative’s priorities.
Ambassador Boček has recently published a thematic Report on migrant and refugee children, based on the findings of his visits to Greece, “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, Turkey, Calais and Grande-Synthe (France) and Italy. He has also facilitated the preparation of the Council of Europe Action Plan on Protecting Refugee and Migrant Children in Europe, which was adopted by 47 member states on 19 May 2017. The Special Representative will now coordinate the implementation of the Action Plan, together with different other Council of Europe entities, during the 2017-2019 time-period.
