- Title: Migrants test "closed" Balkan borders to chase European dream
- Date: 20th May 2016
- Summary: BELGRADE, SERBIA (MAY 18, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS STANDING IN FRONT OF INFO PARK CENTRE MIGRANTS SITTING IN PARK VARIOUS OF MEN KICKING BALL MEN AND WOMEN SITTING IN PARK (SOUNDBITE) (English) AID WORKER FROM B-92 FOUNDATION, GORDAN PAUNOVIC, SAYING: "Obviously the borders are leaking, it's not possible to seal them completely, and average daily between...We have between one hundred and two hundred newcomers, plus those who are already in Belgrade. So we calculate some kind of an average number of refugees, at least five to six hundred daily at any time in Belgrade." VARIOUS OF MEN LYING ON PARK BENCH (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) REFUGEE FROM BAGHDAD, IRAQ, MUHAMMAD HAJDJAN, SAYING: "To cross the border there are smugglers, they charge 2000 euros, 2500 or 2600 euros. This amount is too much, I can pay it but I don't want to spend all my money on this. People are losing their money on the way, [smugglers] are taking their money and their phones, and they leave." MAN TALKING ON MOBILE PHONE MAN PACKING PERSONAL THINGS IN BAG SIGN READING (English): "BUS TICKETS SUBOTICA, KANJIZA, ERDEVIK" PEOPLE WAITING TO BOARD BUS MIGRANTS WAITING TO BOARD BUS VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS BOARDING BUS MIGRANTS' FEET BUS DRIVING AWAY HORGOS, SERBIA (MAY 19, 2016) (REUTERS) MIGRANTS SITING AROUND TENTS BY METAL FENCE ROSZKE, HUNGARY (MAY 19, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS WAITING TO ENTER HUNGARY MAN HOLDING METAL BAR MIGRANTS WAITING / WOMAN HOLDING CHILD HAND ON METAL FENCE HORGOS, SERBIA (MAY 19, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MIGRANT FROM AFGHANISTAN, HEKMAT, SAYING: "No option, just waiting here, don't know and if they...They let about 15 persons to enter with child." ROSZKE, HUNGARY (MAY 19, 2016) (REUTERS) MAN HOLDING CHILD VARIOUS OF POLICEMEN WALKING / MIGRANTS WATCHING THROUGH METAL FENCE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE HOLDING CHILDREN ENTERING THROUGH METAL GATE HORGOS, SERBIA (MAY 19, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MIGRANT FROM LAHORE, PARKISTAN, AHMED, SAYING: "Too much expensive [to pay to smugglers], but only they are taking 15, 13 people per day, it's just like joke." UNHCR SENIOR CO-ORDINATOR FOR NORTHERN SERBIA, MAHMOUD AWAD, TALKING TO MIGRANTS VARIOUS OF UNHCR WORKERS DISTRIBUTING AID TO MIGRANTS WOMAN HOLDING CHILD (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNHCR SENIOR CO-ORDINATOR FOR NORTHERN SERBIA, MAHMOUD AWAD, SAYING: "Horgos border crossing, near the transit zone, the numbers recently started increasing, I mean numbers of people who are willing to seek asylum in Hungary, the figure now at the moment approximately 250 and you saw how people are desperate. They want to go through by any means." VARIOUS OF WOMAN WASHING HAIR WOMAN SITTING ON GROUND WITH TWO CHILDREN PEOPLE STANDING BY METAL FENCE MAKESHIFT CAMP
- Embargoed: 4th June 2016 13:00
- Keywords: migrants refugees asylum crisis Europe
- Location: BELGRADE AND HORGOS, SERBIA / ROSZKE, HUNGARY
- City: BELGRADE AND HORGOS, SERBIA / ROSZKE, HUNGARY
- Country: Serbia
- Reuters ID: LVA0014IM3ZGN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:In a Belgrade park, 50 young men line up in front of aid workers to receive supplies for their journey - a backpack containing a torch, a cellphone and a blanket.
Refugees gather in central Belgrade to meet the smugglers. One open space near the bus station is known as the Syrian park, while over the road is the Afghan park. A bed for the night is on offer at an asylum centre just outside the city.
The Balkan route is officially closed, but for growing numbers of refugees and migrants, Serbia still offers a path to their dream of a better life in western Europe even if it now means putting themselves at risk by using smugglers.
"Obviously the borders are leaking, it's not possible to seal them completely, and average daily between...We have between one hundred and two hundred newcomers, plus those who are already in Belgrade. So we calculate some kind of an average number of refugees, at least five to six hundred daily at any time in Belgrade," one aid worker from the B-92 Foundation, Gordan Paunovic, said.
That can cost thousands of dollars and expose the migrants to grave danger - anything from armed robbery to death by drowning during hazardous border crossings.
"To cross the border there are smugglers, they charge 2000 euros, 2500 or 2600 euros. This amount is too much, I can pay it but I don't want to spend all my money on this. People are losing their money on the way, [smugglers] are taking their money and their phones, and they leave," one migrant from Iraq, Hajdjan, said.
More than 650,000 people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa trudged through Serbia last year on their way to the European Union, but in March the borders closed, leaving thousands trapped on the Macedonian frontier.
A deal between the European Union and Turkey has stemmed the armada of rubber boats reaching Greece and several other countries in the region have closed their borders to migrants.
But people, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, are still reaching Serbia via Macedonia or Bulgaria -- a steady and illegal influx of around 200 a day, according to the Belgrade Asylum Information Centre.
If maintained over a year, that figure could top 70,000, or more than the population of many boroughs in Munich.
Smaller numbers are arriving in Serbia via a new route from Greece via Albania and Kosovo, refugee experts say.
Most migrants use smugglers to get into Serbia and will use them to reach Hungary, gateway to the European Union, aid workers say. Before borders closed this year, refugees had free passage on this last leg of their route into western Europe.
A few dozen a day are allowed into Hungary. The UNHCR reckons that on any day 200 or more are waiting at two official crossing points, where families with children are given priority.
"Horgos border crossing, near the transit zone, the numbers recently started increasing, I mean numbers of people who are willing to seek asylum in Hungary, the figure now at the moment approximately 250 and you saw how people are desperate. They want to go through by any means," UNHCR Senior Co-Ordinator for northern Serbia, Mahmoud Awad, said.
Those refused will often try to cross the border fence illegally even though migrant support groups report some have been beaten and robbed.
At the Horgos border crossing, where a small number of Syrian families were allowed through, refugees have pitched dozens of tents next to the fence. Lines of people wait for white bags of food distributed by aid agencies.
Even though Hungary has logged more than 15,000 asylum seekers this year, most do not stay in the country.
In March, three migrants drowned trying to cross a river near the Greece-Macedonia border and an Afghan was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Serbia after crossing from Bulgaria.
Routes through Serbia were often controlled by smugglers from Pakistan or Afghanistan, with locals providing transport and accommodation, Asylum Centre officials said.
Serbia's people smugglers are looking for a share of a business worth more than $5 billion in southern Europe last year, according to international police agencies.
But police are stepping up efforts against the smugglers and so far this year have charged 187 suspects with trying to smuggle 1,323 people across Serbia's borders. An Interior Ministry spokesman said that since the borders closed in March the numbers charged with people smuggling had increased. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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