While the number of asylum-seekers in South-Eastern Europe continues to rise, most national asylum systems in the subregion do not meet international standards. The majority of new asylum-seekers are Syrian, with Serbia receiving by far the largest percentage of those seeking international protection in the subregion. However, many asylum-seekers and refugees move on before their international protection needs have been assessed. Such movements are prompted in part by: difficulties in applying for asylum, for example at borders; inadequate or insufficient reception conditions; low recognition rates; or a lack of local integration prospects.
Following the regional initiative on Refugee Protection and International Migration, UNHCR, IOM and key stakeholders are pursuing dialogue with Governments in the western Balkans, at national and regional levels, to promote protection-sensitive asylum and migration systems consistent with European and international standards. UNHCR also offers technical advice to Governments across the region and provides legal assistance and direct support to particularly vulnerable people of concern.
As part of the Sarajevo Process, implementation of the Regional Housing Programme continues in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, as well as in Croatia (now covered under the Northern, Western, Central and Southern Europe subregion). Additional funding may be needed to provide sustainable housing solutions for all 74,000 vulnerable refugees, returnees and IDPs from the 1991-1995 conflicts. UNHCR, with OSCE, help to ensure projects provide sustainable solutions for the most vulnerable.
Advances made in the durable solutions process in the western Balkans have led UNHCR to recommend that refugee status should cease for Croatian refugees by December 2014. Where local integration or repatriation processes are still underway, this could be progressively implemented between 2014 and 2017. A similar process, which will lead to a recommendation concerning the cessation of status for refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, is ongoing. UNHCR is of the view that all remaining displaced people should be able to access durable solutions by the end of 2017.
Despite efforts to improve relevant laws and administrative practices, 17,000 people who are stateless or of undetermined nationality, many of whom belong to the Roma minority, continue to lack access to civil registration and documentation in the subregion. UNHCR works closely with the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and the European Commission in assisting Governments to resolve civil registration and nationality-determination issues. All countries are parties to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and only the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has yet to accede to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.