By Jovana Vincic | Executive Director
It is now, in the times of wars across Gaza, Syria and Ukraine, becoming more than ever obvious why the exiles are leaving their countries of origin and why they tend to look for a safety and a new home.
After reaching Turkey from their war-torn countries of origin, many refugees and exiles are leaving for Europe, crossing Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Kosovo, to enter Serbia, the most western European non-EU country on their journey to salvation.
Serbia, the magic word, is symbolizing the lightning house at the end of the horizon for many desperate young refugees to reach it shores. They are trying to jump over same horizon in the last physical effort to succeed and change their own lives and their sad place of birth determined destiny.
For many young Asian and African refugees arriving to the country on daily basis, Serbia has become the last frontier. Many are underage, teenagers or even younger, left or forced to travel alone on a highly perilous journey.
Same migration trend across Balkans and Serbia that proved continuous over the years, is bolstered with terrifying earthquakes, violence, political tensions, and pushbacks that refugees are facing upon their arrival or longer stay in Turkey and across countries of Mediterranean.
Nowadays, Turkish authorities has increased violence and has exhausted EU funding. There, refugees are ignored and deprived of their right to proper shelter or support, unable to receive health care, social care, education or to secure their basic living conditions. Refugees, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, are thus surprisingly often choosing to take risks and test their chances to reach Western Europe.
Many of these refugees are youngsters often stopped in Serbia on their perilous journey to EU. Many are pushed by their families to try to save their lives and avoid risks, threats, and plight in Turkey or at many other places along the outskirts of EU. They are aiming to reach EU external Schengen borders with Serbia and cross it once and for all, to find themselves disinformed, disoriented, vulnerable, and more increasingly exposed to the control and violence of smugglers and border guards in Serbian hinterland.
Just in this year, more than 70 000 persons were identified by Serbian authorities entering and staying in the country so far, while thousands of youths among them were staying irregularly, out of any notice to police neither to existing local nor camp authorities.
At any moment, more than 1000 refugees are staying in northern Serbia along the borders with EU countries. Many living in the open, freezing, lacking food, hygiene, medical care, or psycho-social support. Among them, up to 20% are families with children, while more than 100 refugees are between 15 and 18 years old. In total, more than 8000 minors reached and stayed along Serbia-EU borders this year.
Intentionally, families and underage are denied entry to the existing overcrowded Serbian reception camps in those northern border areas, while Serbian authorities are trying to discourage them from approaching EU borders and move them away southwards, farer from the EU borders. Like in the region of Calais in France, refugees are denied access to asylum and registration in northern Serbia, while violence from smugglers and border guards is raising from both sides of the border.
Refugees are witnessing increasingly restrictive implementation of EU migration and asylum policies along Serbian borders through beatings, pushbacks, neglect, denials to register or claim asylum, ignorance by the health, social and other institutions.
Almost all refugees are lacking relevant information, psychosocial assistance, or expert support, staying in a serious risk to become exploited by criminals and human traffickers while staying in border areas with Hungary, Croatia and Romania and trying their chance to successfully cross EU-Serbia borders.
Just before their dreams come through, young exiles are facing violent, inhuman and degrading treatment by no one else but police forces of Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Serbia, patrolling along borders with Serbia, densely covered with physical barriers and border fences. The intention of EU polices is to stop migration and prevent refugees from coming into EU, while smugglers purpose becomes indispensable.
The message is clear, there is no movement for migrants further on. Violence and pushbacks from EU to Serba are measures that are awaiting refugees, no matter of their age, gender, or origin.
Once facing it, young refugees are often in a need of health care, psychosocial assistance, accommodation, and further institutional care upon their involuntary return to Serbia.
To address above mentioned challenges and protect minor refugees and exiles, we were moving with our vehicles from our regional offices in Belgrade and Subotica, as our operational hubs, to remoted border areas of Vojvodina, northern part of Serbia (e.g. Subotica, Prozivka, Backi Vinogradi, Zadruga, Makova sedmica, Suncani breg, Horgos, Novi Sad, Kikinda, Sombor, Sikara, Kelebija, Principovac, Adasevci, Šid, Kanjiza, Banatsko selo, Vrsac, etc.).
To pull minor refugees out of the woods and border zones, out of the grasp of smugglers and criminals, our mobile teams are providing young refugees and their families with relevant and proven information regarding their position, options, alternatives, system, existing procedures, threatening risks and dangers, providing them counseling in the field and offering alternatives to their irregular stay within the existing system.
Moreover, we are involving local social services, police, and camp authorities in the cases of unaccompanied minors, to move them to safe settings and to place them into the system’s accommodation or social shelters.
Having in mind that Serbian camp managements, social and other system services are slow, inactive, and usually reluctant to the needs of refugees, APC field intervention is fast and initiating immediate reaction of the system. APC mobile teams are pushing for institutional mobility and reaction of the system.
Same fight is not an easy task and requires coordination among field teams and our offices, writing urgencies, sending interventions, conducting meetings and phone calls, pressuring for professional, ethical, and responsible acting of the institutions.
Up to now in the reporting period, we provided 250 refugee children/youth with valid legal and other information on system functioning, on asylum procedures, on risks of traffickers, smugglers, criminals, on ways of recognizing threats, as well as on manners of protection and on manners of reporting existing risks in Serbia and in EU.
On course of the reporting period, we ensured more than 30 vulnerable refugee children/youth access to system shelters, to avoid irregular stay in local communities/open areas across Serbia.
We provided legal counselling to 150 minor migrants across Serbia, out of which 11 were unaccompanied minors. Our lawyers helped minors to learn about their rights, and secured them to get accommodation in asylum camps and appropriate institutional accommodation. Our lawyer and social worker were intervening before local social welfare institutions and camps managements, to provide safe space and accommodation for children, separated from the adults and perpetrators. Moreover, APC mobile staff intervened before health institutions in cases of 10 minor refugees securing them health care and intervention.
Our team provided psychosocial support to 250 minors in camps, helping them to overcome traumas they experienced on the road and difficult living conditions and other challenges in the camps.
Our teams were providing vulnerable minors with food, clothes, humanitarian aid and prescribed medication in circumstances when the system failed or needed supplementary support.
APC mobile office team was sharing humanitarian aid to 60 children and youth in need of blankets, clothes, shoes, but also food and hygiene. APC mobile team was transporting humanitarian aid within its vehicles and sharing it on the course of its regular field, legal, psychosocial, and other project activities.
Moreover, we are initiating guardian procedures and social protection procedures for minors encountered in the open alone or within various mixed age groups, while our holistic legal, psychological, social and humanitarian aid is available to minors they otherwise wouldn't have in forests, along the borders, in the large transit centers, remote areas, in suburbs of cities, abandoned buildings & makeshift shelters, etc.
After getting into Serbian collective camp accommodation, minors and youth are supported by APC teams with trustworthy information regarding asylum procedure in Serbia and how to enter legal frames in the country. They became able to distinguish what kind of rights they are entitled and what kind of obligations they are obliged to respect, if or how to report abuse, violence, misconduct, threats, or maltreatment.
Once in the field, APC mobile team, consisting of legal officer, psychosocial staff and interpreter is usually working all day long to serve as many refugee minors and youth as possible, while being present at one location per time and working often despite weather conditions. Thus, our efficiency and outreach are high. By completing our field intervention instead of making multiple shorter times visits in a week, we are saving additional fuel, energy, and resources and we are acting in an environmentally friendly manner.
By Rados Djurovic | Executive Director
By Rados Djurovic | Executive Director
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