Report on the Performance of Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism for 2017 the application has been submitted. Namely, persons who expressed the intention to seek international protection at the police station, and who did not check into the Reception Centre for Asylum Seekers (RCAS), were not counted as applicants before the amendments of the Act in 2015, but instead had the status of irregular migrants. NUMBER OF APPLICANTS FOR INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION IN THE RC However, in 2017 there were 15.46% fewer applicants for international protection than in 2016, with the gender and age structure not differing significantly from the one in the previous years, characterized by a high percentage of men aged 18 to 34 (44.22%) and 2232 children (23.16%). Out of 1887 applicants, 517 were children, among which 807 261 unaccompanied, and only 26 decisions were 1887 1195 1089 453 211 2011. 2012. 2013. 2014. 2015. 2016. 2017. issued, three positive ones (one asylum and three subsidiary protections) and 22 suspension decisions. In order to protect the interests of children and find the best care possible, as well as due to the need for an early integration, solving their applications should be a priority. The number of decisions issued in relation to the number of applications, as well as their structure, show the continuation of the predominant trend of issuing suspension decisions, because the applicants would not check in at the RCAS, or leave it before the end of the procedure or withdraw the application for international protection. Therefore, in 2017 the percentage of such decisions amounted to 83.35%. APPLICANTS FOR INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION BASED ON CITIZENSHIP In 2017, decisions were issued for the total of 2,126 applications, which Tunisia 2% Morocco 2% 10% Namely, Afghanistan 33% Iran 5% Algeria 5% Turkey also a progress compared to the previous years. Others 13% Bangladesh 2% Iraq 3% is 793 pending applications were transferred to 2017, so hiring 21 employees to Syria 11% work Pakistan 14% on the reception of migrants and procedures of granting international protection can certainly be seen as a positive example of how to respond to the challenges of migratory movements. However, given the duration of the procedure and pending applications of unaccompanied children, hiring additional employees should be considered. The year 2017 was also characterized by MoI’s rejections of applications for international protection due to so-called security threats, based on the opinion issued by the Security and Intelligence Agency (SIA), thus out of 266 negative decisions, 66 refer to the exclusion from international protection due to security 36