United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Ljubljana – Interior Minister Aleš Hojs met via videolink on Wednesday Roland Sebastian Schilling, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for Central Europe. The pair discussed the situation in Afghanistan, including potential migration and security threats, the ministry said.

When foreign policy expert Kemal Kirişci warned of "a mass exodus of refugees fleeing Afghanistan could spark another migration crisis" in April, his research received little attention.

Now, as the Taliban completes a rapid takeover of the country following the US and NATO decision to withdraw, his predictions may have already started to materialise.

The U.S. walked back on Aug. 4 remarks from senior officials regarding Afghan refugee flows amid a diplomatic row with Turkey, and voiced regret about the comments.

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State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington "did not intend to single out any particular country as a destination for refugees."

As the world marks International Refugee Day with a record number of displaced people hit by ongoing conflicts and coronavirus pandemic on top of it, the U.N. Refugee Agency's representative for Turkey called on the international community to ramp up support given for countries hosting a large number of refugees and asylum seekers.

The U.N. refugee agency says war, violence, persecution and human rights violations caused nearly 3 million people to flee their homes last year, even though the COVID-19 crisis restricted movement worldwide as countries shut borders and ordered lockdowns.

Noting that Turkey hosts the most refugees of any country in the world, a U.N. representative said on June 16 that it should receive more support from other states in this regard. 

A new report by a Serbian human rights lawyer published on Wednesday said that the country only accepted 27 per cent of 223 applications for asylum last year, fewer than in 2019.

"The first conclusion that can be drawn from these figures is that the number of total decisions has dropped by 28 per cent in comparison to 2019 and was the lowest in the past four years," the report said.

Alarmed at the increasing frequency of expulsions and pushbacks of refugees and asylum-seekers on Europe's land and sea borders, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, on Thursday called on European states to investigate and halt these practices.

The UN Refugee Agency on Thursday called on states to halt and investigate the forced deportations - known as pushbacks - of migrants attempting to reach Europe that have been recorded by non-governmental organizations.

The UNHCR called for a comprehensive response to migration after a woman died after falling out of an inflatable dinghy carrying Somali migrants off the coast of Lesvos on Friday.

"For people to stop risking their lives on these dangerous journeys, they need safe and regulated alternatives," UNHCR said in a press release.