The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) provides tablet computers to asylum seeking children in North Macedonia to help them continue their learning online in the national education system amid the coronavirus pandemic, spokesperson in Skopje Ljubinka Brashnarska told Sputnik in an interview
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th May, 2020) The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) provides tablet computers to asylum seeking children in North Macedonia to help them continue their learning online in the national education system amid the coronavirus pandemic, spokesperson in Skopje Ljubinka Brashnarska told Sputnik in an interview.
With population of 2 million, the country has so far recorded 1,694 cumulative COVID-19 cases, including 1,229 recoveries and 95 deaths. According to Brashnarska, the government, with the support of partner organizations, has taken "numerous" measures to prevent the spread of the virus both among the general population and refugees and asylum seekers.
"For example, asylum seeking children who are part of the education system in the country have continued their Primary education online, and UNHCR has supported this process by providing tablets to those students as well as a laptop for their local school teacher," she added.
UNHCR, she went on, is also distributing the World Health Organization's COVID-19 information materials in different languages in locations and institutions that are frequently visited by refugees and asylum seekers.
In addition, the agency has launched a hotline and a special online page, so that they could receive information on how to get help in the country.
Though the Western Balkan migrant route that ran from Greece through North Macedonia and Serbia to Croatia was closed back in 2016, some migrants are still trying to use it. North Macedonian authorities frequently discover migrants in trucks near the border with Greece and Bulgaria and deport them back.
In 2019, the country registered 40,887 arrivals of migrants and asylum seekers, including 2,697 children, according to UNHCR's data as of December 31. Minors are mainly from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
