1. MIGRATION CRISIS IN EUROPE: DATA COLLECTION AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENTBY
THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION
Briefing event
@iom_news
facebook.com/magyarorszag
Olsi Dudumi
IOM Budapest
24th June, 2016

2. Migration Crisis in 2015 14. September 23. September 16-17. October
Completion of the fence along Serbian border
New set of legislation
Route shift to Croatia-Hungary border
23. September
Record number of Arrivals  10,046 migrants
October
Fence with Croatia completed
Daily arrivals dropped from 8000 migrants / day to cca 20.
At the end of summer 2015 the migration crisis took another turn, especially in the context of Hungary. Changes happened fast and some very important events occured with regards to the migration crisis.
On the 14 of September the fence along the Serbian border was completed and now the green border was closed for migrants. Together with this completion a new set of legislation was introduced by the Hungarian Government. The widely-criticized amendments to the asylum law entered into force some of its important changes were the designation of Serbia as safe third country, allowing expedited asylum determination and limits procedural safeguards. Additionally, climbing through the fence or damaging it became criminal offence punishable with imprisonment.
Part of the fence completion and the set of legislation The Government declared “emergency situation caused by mass immigration” and deployed military troops to the southern border.
The closure of border with Serbia shift the route migrants could take into Croatian-Hungarian border. The post fence era continued to record very high daily arrivals in Hungary with 23rd of September recording the highest number ever of migrants coming to Hungary. The fence along the Croatian- Hungarian border was underway and was completed on the night of October dropping the number of arrivals from 8000 that night to 20 migrants the other day.

3. Early Warning Information-Sharing Network - 2016
February
Hungary re-enters the Balkan route
Daily arrivals: cca. 150 / day
March/April
Körmend reception center and
Kiskunhalas Asylum Detention opened.
May
Stranded migrants (Tompa & Röszke) increases
to migrants
Early Warning Information Sharing network along the balkan route started to be impletemented by IOM Budapest in november when still the number of daily arrivals was cca 10 migrants daily. The focus was on gathering information on migrant population and characterisitcs. In 2016, February Hungary once again started to re appear in the Balkan route. The number of daily arrivals started to increase from days that were 0 arrivals to cca 150 a day.
In 2016 IOM Budapest staff in the field was collecting data on several aspects of hte migration history, general information on migrants and counter trafficing.
Since February 2016 the number of migrants in Hungary has been on a constant of 150 a day. In March 2016 two new centers were opened. Kormend reception facility is an open facility accommodatin single men and situated near hte border with Austria. In Kiskunhalas in adittion to hte Alien Policing center, an Asylum detention was opened with a capacity of 500 migrants.
The number of arrivals has been constant, yet the border closures and slow procedures to entry in Hungary have increased the number of Stranded migrants waiting to be admitted. In Tompa and Roszke there are cca migrants daily waiting to be admitted to Hungary through the official transit zones.

4. The Transit-Zones
An additional Transit zones is being planned to be opened soon and it will be situated between the existing two, near the village of Assothalom.

5. Migrant facilities in Hungary
This is a map showing the different migrants facilities in Hungary. In Hungary facilities are managed and operated by either the Hungarian Police or by hte Office of Immigration and Nationality. The Guardianship office is the authority that manages and operates the child protection center. At the moment there are three open reception facilities : Bicske, Kormend and Vamosszabadi; two Asylum detention : Kiskunhalas and Bekescsaba. There is Balassagyarmat, which is a community shelter accommodating migrants. Morover in both Tompa and Roszke there is accommodtaion of migrants who can stay there up to 28 days.All these centers are managed by the OIN.
The Hungarian police operates and manages the Alien policing centers, which are in Kiskunhalas, Nyirbator, Vac, Budapest Airport, Gyor and Nagyfa.

6. Structure of data collection
1 field staff
Visits to facilities
2-3 a week
Recently daily
Locations
Police facilities
OIN facilities
UAM centers
One field staff of IOM Budapest was engaged in the data collection process during hte duration of the project. The IOM staff conducted visits to all the facilities in Hungary which accommodated migrants. Initially the staff held 2 to 3 visits a week, and recently due to the increased of new arrivals and migrants accommodated into hte facilities it is being conducted daily visits to the different facilities.
The data collection assistant conducts visits in all the locations of Police Facilities, The OIN facilities, including the Transit zones since one month and UAM centre of Fot.

7. Results of Data Collection
Over 70 visits
Periodic overview of facilities: 7
Monthly updates on stranded migrants
Daily updates
Over 400 interviews
AVRR cases: over 70
In Hungary Over 400 surveys were conducted with migrants in the different facilities. The nationality, gender and age varried accross the migrant population yet the majority of them were single men from Afghanistan and Pakistan mirroring the distribution of these groups in the facilities. The DTM survey were used both in paper form and electronic to gather the data. The interviews were conducted one to one or in groups when there was the case of families or friends travelling together. The data collected were input in the system for furhter analysis by experts on Flow monitoring. During the data gathering process over 70 cases of Assisted Voluntary return were identified.
During the visits in the facilities the IOM Budapest staff held meetings with the heads of facilities, social workers present in teh staff or other organizations which were present during the visit. Through the meetings with the heads of facilities, statistics on migrant population were shared. Daily updates on arrivals in Hungary were shared with the DTM team in Geneva compiling the monthly reports. Recently updates on stranded migrants in Hungary and outside its border is shared looking at this as yet another trend of this crisis.
As of this week there were conducted 70 visits in the different facilitis in Hungary by the IOM staff. And seven overview of visits and facilities were compiled by the IOM Budapest office.

8. The Journey of Afghani & Pakistani Nationals
While the Afhgani migrant population is balanced between single men and Families, Pakistanis are majority single men of age between 18 and 30.
From the interviews conducted in the last two months majority of hte migrants from Afhganistan and Pakistan follow the same route. Since the closure of the Turkish-Greek- Macedonian route, many are coming to Europe through Bulgaria.
Im majority of the cases the trip from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Hungary does not last longer than 1,5 – 2 months, with „lucky”cases managing all route in 2-3 weeks. The short time of the journey and still the open border is gaining more attention by the smugglers as well.
Those migrants who had taken up to 2 months for hte trip report that the time was lost between Turkey and Bulgaria border due to Pushbacks from Bulgarian border guards. Many had tried at least 5 times to cross to Bulgaria. The time spend in Bulgaria if not apprhended by the police does not exeed 5 days, time this used for walking or being transported.
Many of hte migrants who come through this route, report detention in small rooms by the smugglers. Fear of apprehension by the police but also turf wars between the smugglers keep the migrants detained for 2-5 day with one meal a day served.
Once in Serbia a single men from Pakistan or Afghanistan would spend one to two days in Serbia, to rest and clean, as well as to be contacted by the next smuggler.
The migrants pays a central smuggler in their home country, who then coordinates the delivery of the money to the smugglers in the respective countries of transit. If the money is not transfered, the migrant might spend more days in the detained room he is put into.
Migrants report the cost to be over 5000 euro from Afghanista/ Pakistan to Hungary.
Migrants who come through Bulgaria enter Hungary through the fence illegally. The smuggler cuts hte fence and lets everyone in the country before they are apprehended by the Hungarian police few km and few minutes after the cross.
The information is clearly given to each migrant before hand that once in Hungary the only way to continue further is to apply for Asylum as soon as apprehended. It is the only way to be transfered into an open reception facility, where the migrant will be contacted by the next smuggler and transported to Austria.
Those migrants that have no funds, or hte funds drained on the way, are stranded in Hungary.

9. Unwilling detention of migrants
Endresults
Vulnerables detected
Minors
Bulgaria & Turkey
Unwilling detention of migrants
Border closure
Stranded migrants
Many minors were interviewed during the course of the project. Many minors were in Police detention facilities, where a reassessment of their age was awaiting to be conducted. Other minors were in open receptions and were either not been recongized as minors in the first interview with the authorities or their „families” had abandonded them once they managed to enter Hungary.
Many of the migrants coming to Hungary continue to see the country as a transit point and within days try to continue their journey further to Austria. The increase in Police presence and returns from the border back to reception centers has increased the number of migrants staying more in Hungary. During March/April the avarage stay over in Hungary of a migrant after having been transfered to open camp was 2 – 3 days. During May and June, the avarage stay exceeds 2 weeks sometimes.
From the Interviews the migrants confirmed that they are apprehended by the Hungarian police trying to leave Hungary and returned to the respective reception centers or in some cases transferred to Asylum Detention.