Demography

The European Commission said Tuesday it would release a further 50 million euros ($67 million) in humanitarian aid for Syria as the crisis there deepens.
      

EU and the Balkans co-operate against human trafficking

Germany and France have agreed to establish joint expert working groups with Albania and Serbia.

The EU is engaging Balkan countries to slow the tide of human trafficking from the Middle East, Africa and Asia by providing additional support for refugees who legally arrive in Union states.

A baby girl born early Sunday has officially pushed the population of the Philippines to 100 million, highlighting the challenge of providing for more people in the already-impoverished nation.
      
The child, Jennalyn Sentino, was one of 100 babies born in state hospitals all over the archipelago who received the symbolic designation of "100,000,000th baby".
      

Nearly 80,000 migrants have taken dangerous boat journeys across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in 2014, an increase of 60% compared to the entire 2013.

Bulgaria implements all necessary measures to manage the influx of immigrants, Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev said, Wednesday.

Currently, the state can handle up to 1,000 migrants a month, Yovchev told reporters noting that the refugee accommodation centers in the country are 70% free.

3,000 asylum seekers in Serbia so far this year

BELGRADE -- Serbia’s Assistant Commissioner for Refugees Ivan Gerginov said Wednesday that the number of asylum seekers was steadily increasing in the country.

About 3,000 people seeking asylum in Serbia in the first six months of the current year, he explained.

BELGRADE – Serbia’s Assistant Commissioner for Refugees Ivan Gerginov said Wednesday that the number of asylum seekers was steadily increasing, with about 3,000 people seeking asylum in Serbia in the first six months of the current year.

Gerginov told Belgrade-based TV Pink that the number of asylum seekers had gone up from 44 in 2008 to more than 3,000 the year before.

Authorities are planning to resettle two thousands of people who have been granted refugee or humanitarian status until the end of 2014, a Bulgarian daily writes.

Citing the 2014 draft strategy on refugee integration, the newspaper Sega argues the measure is due to be adopted at a cabinet session on Wednesday, July 23.

Nearly 3000 people are to return to Bulgaria from Germany, authorities in Berlin have warned.

Most of those to be sent back here have been granted either humanitarian or refugee status, but some of them have managed to illegally cross Bulgaria's borders and reach Western Europe, State Agency for Refugees (DAB) chief Nikolay Chirpanliev told Bulgarian daily Sega.

Overwhelmed by an influx of mostly Syrian immigrants, Bulgaria has taken steps to secure its EU border -- including building a barbed-wire fence -- but now faces criticism from rights groups.
      
The 30-kilometre fence, standing three meters high and fortified with razor wire coils, was completed this week.