Persistent migration challenges: FRA publishes data collection report

Since September 2015, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has published monthly data collection reports on the migration situation. Each of the reports has a specific focus.

In its report published today, the FRA highlights four priority areas after reviewing data collected over the past year. Numerous challenges still remain to safeguard asylum seekers and migrants. The report underlines persistent issues from the past year that the EU and its Member States need to urgently address. Some of the main findings include:

1. Unaccompanied children - inadequate first child reception facilities often result in missing children. Qualified staff and clear guidance to identify children at risk are often lacking. Guardianship remains problematic with delays in appointment or the temporary use of reception staff hindering child protection and family reunification. In addition, children face legal and practical obstacles to access asylum procedures. They may also be detained to protect and prevent them from absconding.
2. Violence and hate speech against migrants - hate crime and hate speech continues to be a major concern and seems to be worsening and spreading in some Member States. It spans physical attacks and murder, damage to property including arson, threats to aid workers and service providers, and hostile demonstrations against refugees. Such incidents are often politically-motivated and in part being carried out by vigilantes. There also have been incidents of police violence.
3. Safety and protection at reception facilities - While they may have various protection and safety measures, incidents of abuse and sexual assault on women and children have been reported. This points to the need for specific measures to protect vulnerable people against violence that are often lacking.
4. Impact on local communities - The lack of information and contact between local and refugee communities is contributing to growing hostility in many local communities. However, shifting budgets to the local level to deal with the impact of arrivals and integrating migrant children into local schools seems to be improving.