Demography

Norway has agreed to take in 8,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2017, under an agreement reached June 10 by most of the Scandinavian country's political parties.

GENEVA, June 5 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency on Friday said it was stepping up its field presence in the eastern Aegean islands of Greece where sea arrivals in recent weeks from Turkey have been averaging some 600 people a day, straining local reception capacities.

The U.N. refugee agency is urging the European Union to take in far greater numbers of refugees than planned as the number of desperate Syrians fleeing conflict continues to grow.

The EUs 28 nations resettled only around 8,500 people in need of protection last year, according to UNHCR figures, and plans to resettle 20,000 refugees from outside Europe over the next two years.

Cambodia received its first batch of asylum-seekers from Australian custody June 4 as part of a widely-criticised deal between the two countries.

The refugees -- three Iranians and one ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar -- were flown into Phnom Penh, the capital of one of Southeast Asia's poorest nations with a weak record for upholding human rights.    

Dozens of French law enforcement officers on June 2 cleared several hundred African migrants from a camp under a subway bridge in northern Paris.

France and Germany raised concerns on June 1 over a European Commission plan to redistribute migrants reaching Italy and Greece, saying it must take better account of efforts they have already taken to help asylum-seekers. 

The European Commission on Wednesday announced plans to relocate 40,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece across Europe, in a move aimed at defusing pressure on these two southern European countries.

Romania has been told to accept 1,704 people, Croatia 748 and Bulgaria 572.

The European Commission proposed easing the impact of the Mediterranean migration crisis on Italy and Greece by moving 40,000 refugees to countries further north.

The EU on May 27 asked its member states to admit over the next two years 40,000 asylum seekers from Syria and Eritrea who have already landed in Italy and Greece.

Over 3,000 children requested asylum in Serbia since the beginning of the year, over 1,300 of them children without parental escort.

At the same time, "is not known how many children are staying or transiting through the country without requesting asylum," Director of the Center for Protection and Assistance to Asylum Seekers Rados Djurovic stated on Wednesday.