EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SERBIA SOCIAL NETWORKING Migrants in Serbia use social networking to plan routes to western Europe

Record ID: 142280

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SERBIA SOCIAL NETWORKING Migrants in Serbia use social networking to plan routes to western Europe
  • Date: 27th August 2015
  • Summary: BELGRADE, SERBIA (AUGUST 27, 2015) (REUTERS) MIGRANTS WALKING INTO ASYLUM INFO CENTRE SIGN READING (English/Arabic/Serbian): 'ASYLUM INFO CENTRE' MAN SITTING AT COMPUTER NEXT TO MAN TYPING ON MOBILE PHONE FINGER POINTING AT ROUTE FROM BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA VIA CROATIA TO AUSTRIA VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS USING MOBILE PHONES MIGRANT FROM SYRIA, AHMAD AZZAWI, LOOKING AT COMPUTER SCREEN HAND ON COMPUTER MOUSE AZZAWI WATCHING COMPUTER SCREEN AZZAWI LOOKING AT MOBILE PHONE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MIGRANT FROM SYRIA, AHMAD AZZAWI, SAYING: "Now when we saw we have internet, we got in touch with our families and we can also see the route ahead of us. (JOURNALIST ASKING: "CAN YOU GET SOME INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR FAMILIES?") Yes, and we sometimes hear bad news because we came from dangerous areas. (JOURNALIST ASKING :"BUT MAINLY FOR YOUR TRIP TO HUNGARY?") Yes, mainly to get into Hungary, God willing." MIGRANTS USING MOBILE PHONE AND COMPUTER (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) DIRECTOR OF ASYLUM INFO CENTRE, VLADIMIR SJEKLOCA, SAYING: "Here in this centre, migrants spend most of the time using computers, free wifi. They can also charge their mobile phones, because we have heard that people are charging them for that." SJEKLOCA'S HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) DIRECTOR OF ASYLUM INFO CENTRE, VLADIMIR SJEKLOCA, SAYING: "At the moment for them it is the most important thing, because through social networking they can find out what happened with their families in their countries, but at the same time about their relatives and friends in the countries they want to go to." TWO MIGRANTS USING SOCIAL NETWORK ON COMPUTER
  • Embargoed: 11th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Serbia
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7IFPCIEIOX2AGVJX5SCJ6JHPJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Belgrade municipalities and the UNHCR have established an Asylum Info Centre in Belgrade for migrants and refugees keen to turn to cyberspace for the next stage of their journey to western Europe.
    Access to platforms such as Viber and Facebook has been in high demand for the younger generations of migrants, who can now use the centre's free wifi and charging points to share information and keep in touch with friends and relatives elsewhere along the route.
    When they arrive in Serbia, a part of finding a place where to stay -- mainly in one of the Belgrade parks -- is to find pre paid data card for smart phones.
    On Thursday (August 27), all the terminals in the centre were occupied with migrants using online maps, making internet calls -- but mainly using social platforms to exchange information on how to travel to Western Europe.
    One of them was Syrian Ahmad Azzawi, who was looking at the map alternative routes to Austria via Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. But he still hopes he will cross from Serbia into Hungary.
    "Now when we saw we have internet, we got in touch with our families and we can also see the route ahead of us," Azzawi said.
    Smart phones have become integral to their journey. People reported that on the boats they took to reach Europe, smart phones were wrapped up in plastic to use the GPS and mapping tools as cyber guides.
    "Here in this centre, migrants spend most of the time using computers, free wifi. They can also charge their mobile phones, because we have heard that people are charging them for that," the director of the Asylum Info Centre, Vladmir Sjekloca, said.
    Social network platforms provide not just basic route guides, but information about prices for bus transportation, taxi fares and the best hostels.
    "At the moment for them it is the most important thing, because through social networking then can find out what happens with their families in their countries, but at the same time about their relatives and friends in the counties they want to go to," Sjekloca added.
    As well as the centre, migrants have wandered round downtown Belgrade looking for other sources of wifi -- occasionally just standing by buses equipped with the technology.
    About 100,000 migrants, many of them from Syria and other conflict zones in the Middle East, have entered Serbia this year on their way north to Hungary and Europe's Schengen zone of passport-free travel. Hungary is building a 3.5-metre high fence along its 175-km (110-mile) border with Serbia seeking to keep the migrants out.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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