Serbia: winter evictions

Tags

Balkans, evictions, exilés, migrants, Serbia

The cold weather this January has not only touched Greece (see here, here and there). In this context in Serbia, the government destroyed the encampments in the vicinity of Subotica, near the border with Hungary.

 

 

The railway hangars sqatted as shelters in Belgrade were also evacuated. Médecins Sans Frontières is trying to cope with the situation when the authorities are trying to hinder humanitarian aid.

http://www.msf.org/en/article/migration-thousands-trapped-freezing-temperatures-greece-and-balkans

http://www.courrierdesbalkans.fr/le-fil-de-l-info/les-dernieres-infos-o-refugiesbalkans-les-anciens-hangars-ferroviaires-a-belgrade-bientot-evacues.html

http://www.msf.fr/presse/revue-de-presse/paris-match-en-serbie-migrants-enfer-hiver

 

Faces of Europe – Horgos

Tags

Balkans, exilés, Hungary, refugees, Serbia

Following of Céline Barré’s chronicle on the road of the exiles in the Balkans.

 

Horgos. Hungarian border – September 18.

https://goo.gl/maps/ed85398TsUq

3000 people stranded at the border. A wall, barbed wire, Hungarian policemen and a European flag flying away. It’s hot and there is only one water point for 3000 people. People sit in front of the barbed wire barriers, the crowd chants “We love Hungaria, we love hungarian police”, “we want to go to germany“, “we want freedom”.

Syrian children naively repeat “open the door, open the door.”

These people want only pass through Hungary, they do not want to stay there, just continue with their journey.

Tension rises. On the Hungarian side, they bring a water tank, a kind of karcher at very high pressure. The families hope to pass while they have their bags on the back and the kids in their arms. A group of 10 people gets excited and finally opens the first barrier. A cry of joy, hope, but lasts the time of a few seconds. Hungarian police charges, gas the crowd.

Near me, a family with a baby of six months is gassed. The baby suffocates, the mother panics. The crowd turns back and many children fall to the ground, are trampled. Police continue to gas.

The tear gas burns the eyes, throat, lungs. The gas pricks the skin, becomes embedded in clothing. It takes more than 10 minutes to restore normal breathing. Some vomit, cry a lot. Mothers yell their rage. Some young people decide to throw apples, stones at the security forces. Hungarians respond with their karchers. The pressure is such that for an hour, it’s chaos.

The rage, fatigue, injustice, it creates the rebellion and violence. Who does not revolt when good little soldiers gas children? On the Serbian side, police officers smoke cigarettes, laugh at the situation, passively watching people running, children crying …. what happens here, it‘s not their problem.

The tension goes down, young people gather again at the gate and back to their peace slogans. “We just want peace.” The boys are recovering slowly from the effects of gas but the fear is there.ak In front of them, barbed wire and hundreds of police.

A few minutes later, a rumor bre out, they opened the border. We hear the applause. The crowd reform and people return to the Hungarian side. The border seems open. Mothers take their children under the arms and go again on the way.

“Thank you, good luck and see you in Francia” says one father. It seems to be a trap, but they move forward.

Then screams, again gas, water at high pressure. People turn around, gassed again. Children screaming, babies do not even have reactions. Police charges.

It was a joke.

People have been able to advance 30 meters in Hungary and the police charged, gassed, bludgeoned, sprayed. Journalist tearful comes back from “the front”; she made bludgeoned by the police. The air is unbreathable several meters. A mother screams her anger and powerlessness towards the police, her 8 year old daughter follows her, they are gassed again. It is also that “Refugees Welcome“.

A camp settles a few meters from the border, bringing together 3,000 people. Others will arrive tomorrow. No water, no electricity, no toilets, no food. Nothing. We are in a Serbian meadow on the Hungarian border. Almost no humanitarian assistance and 3 UNHCR people lost.

A queue forms at the only water source. Fathers wash clothes of their children, remove the tear gas from their clothes otherwise they risk allergies, burns and respiratory problems.

Two trucks bring food, that is to say bread. No organization for distribution so that’s the rush. They throw bread to people as they throw the cattle food.

Welcome to Europe, this is our way of making you understand our level of consideration to you and your families. We gaze you then throw you bread.

Two empty buses arrive on the spot to deter refugees to stay here at the border. There is a refugee camp a few tens of kilometers. A nice inclosure just for you! You will have some food and a blanket in addition! Think to your children, do not stay there … and then anyway your journey is over, it stops there. You see, this is Serbia! And remember … If you attempt any resistance … we will start to gas your kids again. So silently now, get on the bus and go to camp!

 

Faces of Europe – at the Serbian – Hungarian border

Tags

Balkans, exilés, Hungary, refugees, Serbia

Following of Céline Barré’s chronicle on the road of the exiles in the Balkans.

 

Border between Serbia and Hungary – September 16

https://goo.gl/maps/ed85398TsUq

« We don’t want you here, understand ? »

This is what we hear arriving in Subotica, a town at the Serbian-Hungarian border. We go out at the bus station to take a match for Horgos, last town before Hungary. An agent informs us that we can take the 3 pm bus but that refugees must wait for the 6 pm bus. What for ? Because the 3 pm bus  is reserved for our children and for Europeans. The refugees must wait. We go then to the desk to buy a ticket. The saleswoman tells us that the 3 pm bus is full, we have to wait that of 6 pm, we risk to say that we are not refugees: she apologizes, we can take the 3 pm bus. We will take the 6 pm, like everyone else. That of 3 pm left almost empty, only filled with Serbians and Europeans. The 6 pm bus takes more than 100 people including children and old people sitting on the ground.

We call a hotel for tonight: 1st question: “Are you Syrians? Refugees? “. “No, europeans. Why? “” Because Europeans, Yes. Refugees, no”. Should we impose yellow stars to better identify these refugees? This makes echo the history classes in high school, those that explained to us how we were able to reject categories of persons. Racism, xenophobia, segregation. These words are frightening, they are taboo but I have this agonizing feeling that they are valid. More in Europe we go up, the more pressure is felt.

“We do not want you here“; this sentence was pronounced by the officer from the station, towards someone asking where he could buy his bus ticket. Embarrassed, he is not angry, he’s just gone, silent. Witnessing this scene did not make me react either. No reaction. The disgust and passivity take precedence over anger.

The border between Serbia and Hungary closed yesterday evening. The last “luckies” were able to cross the border. To those with whom we were in the bus, the journey ends here, at Horgos. The bus stops us at the crossing of a railway. A sign: “Border 3 km. Border Will Be closed at midnight“. It was a warning message dated yesterday. Today is too late. Families do not know where to go. They still have to try. They will have to walk 3 km to reach the border. Closed. Barbed wire walls, security forces stationed on the other side. The course ends. A mother with her two sons asks me “Border closed? “. “Yes.” She collapses.

There are also these three little girls 3 years old triplets who play just outside the barbed wire fence, the grandmother who arrives in a wheelchair, this teenager who is missing a leg. More than a week of walking, fatigue, fear, violence, hunger to get here, to Horgos, a sort of no man’s land grid. No water, no food. They eat when the kids? They sleep where? Here, it seems to be the concern of no one. You can only have a feeling of shame towards this Europe without mercy. Some say they must go to Croatia which is several hundred kilometers far but the Serbians control, arrest and expel to Macedonia. Hungary has strengthened its police force, installed the army. Serbian newspapers speak of “100,000 clandestines stranded in the country including terrorists.” The anti-migrant propaganda is here and Europe offers it a beautiful field of emancipation.

Night falls and the triplets will sleep outside, and that in the largest European indifference. Serbian Minister urged the Hungarian government to reverse its decision of stopping the entrances and demand to let go “at least women and children.” Ah, finally some humanity! Fathers? Let them defend their country instead of wanting to protect their kids!

It reigns here a war atmosphere without understanding who the enemy is.

 

Faces of Europe – from Athens to Belgrade

Tags

Balkans, exilés, Greece, Macedonia, refugees, Serbia

Following of Céline Barré’s chronicle on the road of the exiles in the Balkans.

 

From Athens to Belgrade – September 14

https://goo.gl/maps/aCtJVd6CfsG2

Ana

28 people including 11 children and four babies dead drowned at sea between Turkey and Greece last Sunday, September 13. A 14 year old teenager killed by a stray bullet after attempts by Greek coast guards to sink a ship. 3 missing children. How many more kids have to die in order we recognize that the borders kill? The maritime border makes a selection before letting people in Europe. The more adventurous will arrive, those who have the less damaged boat, those who will not face the Turkish and Greek coast guards and some of them who contribute to sink the boats.

Impossible? Lie? It is however what refugees are telling. A young Iraqi boxer testifies that the boat was carrying 43 people including him and his girlfriend. The Turkish coast guards are close to their boat and revolve around it. This created waves, waves filled the boat. The boat is sinking. The 43 people aboard panic, parents show their children to beg coast guard to stop their game but it does not work. Children in a boat sinking? Too common, we have already seen it too many times. The boat is sinking more and more so you have to bail out, throw the bags in water. They loose money, mobiles, blankets, pictures. Matter of survival. This boat will arrive safely, that is to say, fail on a beach in Lesbos. These testimonies, we can hear them every day, but until when will we be able to be helpless witnesses of this?

Crossings of land borders are not simple. We joined the Greek-Macedonian border in a taxi with the Syrian father and his son. They wanted to take a break in Athens for sleeping, washing and digest the experience of Lesbos, but no time, you have to hurry. Hungary is about to finish the construction of the wall, after that it will not be possible to go through that road. The taxi takes us to the countryside, near a disused railway station. On site, many hundreds of people must be divided into groups of 50 and sometimes wait several hours before they cross the border. This border is a 3 to 4 km moor they will have to cross as quickly as possible and under the control of the authorities of both countries. We were not allowed to follow Hussein and his father. For us, “not refugees,” we have to take the legal path, the one that starts with “Your passport please” and ends with “Thank you and welcome to Macedonia.” It’s good to be European.

Before leaving, the father of Hussein asked the English translation of “hyper-tension”, “diabetes”, in case he weakens on the road.

We try to find Hussein in Macedonia but they decided to continue the road, taking a night bus to Serbia. They still have not slept since Lesbos.

At the border between Macedonia and Serbia, refugees must register with the authorities. They deliver a document authorizing them to remain in the country for 72 hours or risk expulsion or imprisonment. Arrived in Macedonia, we have not been allowed to take the same bus as refugees. These are buses specially dedicated for them. The price is more expensive for them. Bus companies and taxis feast on. We cross then Macedonia to join the border with Serbia. On the road, we learn that Macedonia plans to build a wall on the Greek border to “block the influx of refugees.” They will go where these people? Again, people are parked in the countryside and when the police allows them to pass, they must act quickly. Take your kids under your arm and walk as fast as possible!

We finally arrive to take a “common” bus to Belgrade. We pay the same fare “special Refugees“. In this bus, kids and pregnant women. Ana is 24 years old, accompanied by her father, her brother and her son Walid, 2 years old. Her husband is stuck in Turkey. Ana is 7 months pregnant, she hopes to arrive soon in Germany, she feels tired. When the bus stops in Belgrade, it is 11 p.m. and Walid feels cold. More than 500 people have laid in their tents in the park beside the station. As soon as we leave, touts offer taxis to 300 euros to get people at the border, located 1 hour drive. “Good price … border will be closed tomorrow.” Some taxis bring people 100 km from the border telling people they are in Germany.

It is here in Belgrade that the rumor is confirmed, Hungary is currently completing the construction of its wall and announced that its border will be fully closed this Monday, September 14th late afternoon. Well, we are. We welcome a certain quota, we communicate on European generosity, then we close. And if they fail to pass before the end of the afternoon, we tell what to Ana and her two years kid? We apologize Ana … we warned, we only take a limited number of person … you’re pregnant? Your daughter will be a good Serbian or a good Macedonian.

Go Ana, forget your contractions, pays 300 euros taxi and tryi your chance, there is still a few hours for you to cross the Hungarian border!

 

SERBIA: DETERIORATION OF THE SITUATION OF EXILES

Tags

Balkans, exilés, migratory politics, Serbia

As winter makes it difficult living conditions in the camps, either in Subotica, near the Hungarian border, or in the encampments where asylum seekers awaiting admission to shelters, repression continues to Subotica, made of racketeering and violence by police officers. Since late December, police conducts raids and brings the exiles arrested in localities where the reception of asylum seekers centers are located. On December 10, an exile in Belgrade died of poisoning by carbon monoxide in his shelter.

In English on the blog No Border Serbia:

https://noborderserbia.wordpress.com/2014/12/29/alarmantna-situacija-i-policijska-represija-u-subotici/

https://noborderserbia.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/this-border-regime-kills-granicni-rezim-ubija/

https://noborderserbia.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/new-tactics-same-violence-the-police-in-subotica-transfering-people-from-the-jungles-to-the-camps-for-asylum-seekers/

A press release of Médecins sans Fontières and photos:

http://www.msf.org/article/gallery-transit-denied-stranded-cold-serbia

http://www.msf.org/article/serbia-asylum-seekers-and-migrants-left-cold

« PRESS RELEASE – 19 February, 2015

Asylum seekers and migrants left in cold SerbiaMSF calls on Serbian authorities and EU member states to provide aid and protection to those in need

Asylum seekers, refugees and migrants who have risked their lives to reach Europe are being left stranded in forests and abandoned buildings in Serbia in harsh winter temperatures without sufficient food or shelter, according to international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). MSF teams are providing them with essential relief items and urgently needed medical care. At the same time, MSF is calling on the Serbian authorities and European Union member states to provide the asylum seekers with aid and protection.The Dublin regulation usually requires asylum seekers irregularly entering the EU to apply for asylum in their first country of entry, however migrants and asylum seekers are increasingly fleeing substandard conditions in Greece and Bulgaria, crossing the Balkan region on their way to northern Europe. According to the Serbian asylum office, about 16,500 asylum seekers – mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Sub-Saharan African countries – entered Serbia in 2014 in an attempt to find refuge and dignified living conditions within Northern Europe.

“The EU member states have to acknowledge the outrageous consequence of their policies and to improve the current asylum procedures, reception conditions, and lack of integration which are failing thousands of refugees and asylum seekers,” said Stuart Alexander Zimble, MSF’s coordinator in the Balkan region. “Greece, Bulgaria and the EU must improve access to asylum procedures and reception conditions for newly arrived asylum seekers.”

A still dysfunctional asylum system in Greece, which obliges people in need of protection to stay in appalling conditions, is forcing people to take further risks by using smuggling networks to leave Greece in search of better assistance and protection. “The situation is so bad in Greece, you cannot stay there as an asylum seeker,” says one Afghan refugee who spent 18 months in a detention centre in Greece and then went to Macedonia and Serbia.

On arrival in Serbia, many asylum seekers find their only option is to sleep out of doors, under plastic sheeting or in makeshift tents, despite winter temperatures that can reach 20 below zero. Every day in the village of Bogovadja, dozens of asylum seekers wait for their asylum applications to be registered. At this location, the asylum office processes only a handful of registrations per day, forcing people – sometimes including pregnant women and children – to wait in the forest surrounding the village. In the town of Subotica, near the Hungarian border, migrants shelter at night inside abandoned and ruined buildings. Some are sleeping outside, hidden in fields, to avoid running into the police.

MSF calls on EU member states, in particularly Hungary, to abstain from returning third-country nationals to Serbia. Serbia, with the support from UNHCR, should provide adequate assistance and international protection to asylum seekers, including increasing its capacity to register and accommodate every person who requests asylum at all asylum centre locations, in a safe, friendly, and efficient manner.

An MSF team has been conducting mobile clinics and distributing kits of essential relief items to vulnerable people in Bogovadja and Subotica since December. The most common health problems among migrants are colds, respiratory diseases, and skin diseases, mostly due to the cold weather and poor sanitary conditions.

“In general they are poorly clothed, living in unhygienic conditions, not able to bathe and very hungry,” says MSF medical coordinator Vasiliki Armeniakou. “Many have muscle and bone injuries, and severe body aches, cuts, bruises and frostbite as a result of days of walking or running through the forest.” »

 

SERBIA: THE FATE OF ASYLUM SEEKERS

Tags

asylum, Balkans, exilés, Serbia

Consequence of its place on the path of exiles on their way to central and northern Europe, but also the number of crises in the Middle East (after Syria, Iraq), Serbia sees the number of asylum seekers increase. Most do not want to stay and continue their journey. But many questions are being debated, such as the reception capacity at the approach of winter, the proportion of minors, with in the background the issue of Serbian asylum-seekers in the European Union. Also, rejection reactions of the population, as in Mladenovac.

About the reception of asylum seekers, on the site of Le Courrier des Balkans:

http://balkans.courriers.info/article25671.html

and on the blog Serbie Droits Humains:

http://serbie-droitshumains.blogspot.fr/2014/10/hausse-du-nombre-de-demandeurs-dasile.html

About minors:

http://serbie-droitshumains.blogspot.fr/2014/10/mineurs-demandeurs-dasile-en-serbie.html

and opposition to the home of asylum seekers in Mladenovac, on the blog Serbie Droits Humains:

http://serbie-droitshumains.blogspot.fr/2014/10/manifestation-contre-un-centre-pour.html

(Article in French)

 

WESTERN BALKANS: SAFE COUNTRIES ACCORDING TO GERMANY

Tags

asylum, Balkans, Bosnia, exilés, Macedonia, Serbia

The German parliament decided to add Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia to the list of safe countries of origin. This list varies from one country to another, and included so far in Germany the other countries of the European Union, Ghana and Senegal. This effectively means that asylum seekers should bring immediately clear evidence of persecution for their claims examined. This measure is intended mainly Roma, who are also the majority of deportees by Germany to the Balkans.

See in English in the European Council on Refugees and exiles :

http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=8e3ebd297b1510becc6d6d690&id=9642a55e9e&e=56fa2dd50e

 

SERBIA: A REPORT ON ASYLUM

Tags

asylum, Balkans, exilés, Serbia

Belgrade Center for Human Rights issued a report on asylum in Serbia, which detailes the different aspects of the question, from acces to the territory to the emplementation of the refugees rights, though legal frame, procedure and reception conditions : “Right to Asylum in the Republic of Serbia 2013”.

You can download the report (in English) here.

 

SERBIA: A NON-FONCTIONNAL ASYLUM SYSTEM

Tags

asylum, Balkans, exilés, Serbia

The director of the Centre for assistance to asylum seekers declares to the newspaper Blic that the Serbian asylum system is not functional. The number of asylum seekers rose sharply (2055 in the first quarter of 2014 against 5065 for the entire year 2013). The number of places in reception centers has been doubled, but it is to go from 250 to 500, which is totally undersized. The procedure does not work. In 2013, only 4 people were granted asylum applications for 5065. No one who has filed an application in 2014 has been recognised as refugee.

French article on the blog Serbie droits humains:

http://serbie-droitshumains.blogspot.fr/2014/04/2055-personnes-ont-demande-lasile-au.html

 

Banja Koviljaca, reception center for asylum seekers, March 2012.

 

SERBIA: GOVERNMENT SINGS ITS VICTORY OVER “FALSE ASYLUM SEEKERS”

Tags

asylum, Balkans, European Union, exilés, Serbia

It was a requirement of the European Union in exchange for the removal of the requirement for Serbian citizens to obtain a visa for a short stay in the Schengen area: Serbia was prevented from leaving its territory persons coming to ask asylum in EU countries, such persons together being referred to as “false asylum seekers”. This agreement was made ​​in violation of fundamental rights of the persons concerned, be it to leave any country including his own or those guaranteed by the Geneva Convention on Refugees.

Chairman of the Commission on visa-free regime can therefore boast publicly reduction “false asylum seekers“. As a bonus, he asks Germany, which has already expelled thousands of Roma from Serbia and Kosovo, and has added Serbia to the list of safe countries of origin (which means the processing of applications for asylum under an accelerated procedure) to reduce the monthly allowance paid to asylum seekers and even shorten the procedure.

French article on the blog Serbie – droits humains:

http://serbie-droitshumains.blogspot.fr/2014/05/reduction-des-faux-demandeurs-dasile.html