UNHCR, IOM seek US$550 million to aid refugees, migrants in Europe

As continuing conflict in the Middle East and elsewhere drove people to seek refuge in Europe, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, the International Organisation for Migration, and some 65 other organisations appealed in January 2016 to donors for US$550 million to support the ongoing humanitarian response.

With global forced displacement at a record high of some 60 million people and increasingly impacting countries of the Global North, 2015 saw over a million refugees and migrants arriving in Europe by boat.

Around 850,000 of these crossed from Turkey to Greece. The vast majority of them came from the world's top ten refugee-producing countries, mainly Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Most of those arriving in Europe continued their journey on through the Balkans and towards Austria, Germany, Sweden and other countries.

The appeal, which was launched in Geneva on the 26 January 2016, aimed at funding humanitarian operations in 2016 across the affected European countries, with approximately half of the funds allocated for Greece.

ESO: Information Guide: European Migration Challenges http://www.europeansources.info/record/information-guide-european-migration-challenges/

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