"Smuggling flourishing as Balkan migrant route closes"

"Smuggling flourishing as Balkan migrant route closes"

This was a long day that started with an interview (in Serbian) of Info Park/Fond B92 manager Gordan Paunovic for TV N1.

He shared a skepticism about the current measures and apparent “closing” of a Balkan route. According to Info Park findings based on fluctuations around Belgrade transit hubs and parks, we are witnessing an uninterrupted flow of smuggled refugees and migrants from Bulgarian border. These numbers are between 50 and 80 daily, with a few peaks at about 100 refugees coming mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan but also from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia etc, either big families with many children or males, single or in groups. So it seems quite bizarre to read the official news highlighting an apparent zero flow of the refugees since a few days ago.

As our Dimitrovgrad team on Bulgarian border reports practically no activities in the registration center for the last 10 days, except for an occasional refugee or a group who lost their smuggling logistics, we can only come to a weird conclusion about what the new measures of the EU has brought - a flourishing of smuggling business and a complete transfer of a legal and relatively safe flow of people into illegal channels over the border. Because the numbers of 50-80 smuggled migrants completely coincide with the official statistics in the last weeks in Dimitrovgrad before the border’s closure. So much about the new measures that only made smugglers and their friends happy. A drive between Sofia and Belgrade is 1000e per adult head while within Serbia, they charge 300e per person from Bulgarian border to Belgrade.

Gordan also mentioned a thing that should be again highlighted - how the whole refugee “concept” is now criminalized by the EU, which is not only a humanitarian disaster but also a grouse violation of various fundamental international agreements such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a total mess created by the EU administration after proclaiming a division between refugees and economic migrants, now we are witnessing EU abandoning the most basic right of refugees to seek for place where they feel safe. “Europe is selfishly defending its middle class heaven and luxury of having a peace, while it should offer its peace for whoever wants to have it. These people are dreaming of having that peace as the fundamental value of their lives too and now they are punished and criminalized for that”, Gordan said.

After the recent silence in Dimitrovgrad, at least an official silence, lots of NGO and humanitarian teams are leaving the city or cutting their staff down. Info Park is still there, though apart from helping caught refugees to learn about their options in Serbia, there was not much work for us either. Meanwhile, Belgrade is still boiling, we see new faces everyday, people are coming and leaving. Now that you know where they are coming from, you may wonder - where do they go, when the western border is closed. Well, some opt to seek for an asylum in Serbia, buy some time, have a bit of rest and peace in the open camps in Krnjaca, Tutin, Sjenica and (already filled up) Banja Koviljaca, and think about their future.

Some, like many Afghans or Pakistanis arriving to Belgrade, are not interested at all in asylum in Serbia, do not waste time in the long registration queues and just seek for smugglers to take them across the border. Well, “seek” is not a right word as smugglers are everywhere around parks, offering their services. We learnt their faces by now very good. Earlier this month, the price for crossing into Hungary was 400-500e per person, we wouldn't be surprised if a high demand made it bigger now.

The route through Hungary is up and running, some get caught, imprisoned and sent back, but some makes it to the EU paradise, in a full secrecy of illegal migration, like invisible persons that will never become EU citizens. We have a feeling that we are somehow coming back to the situation from the summer 2015, when Belgrade resembled Casablanca from the Bogart’s film - a transit knot where everyone is seeking for a way to leave. While it gets pretty obvious that Dimitrovgrad, Presevo and Sid are fading out, at least on the flow, Belgrade in the last days has seen pretty constant numbers of average 500-600 people present in the parks, lots of old faces but also some new, on a daily basis.

This is also reflected in a bigger presence of different organizations, official, NGO, formal, informal - everyone is again doing something for them, police is observing and preventing violence, doctors are on site, Red Cross is providing hot meals from tomorrow (apparently soups and tea), volunteers are also cooking and helping, Info Park staff is running around, buying tickets for travel towards asylum camps, serving people tea and noodles, explaining them options which are at the moment pretty much nailed to either asylum process here or smugglers. Not fun, really.

We were also pleased to receive a huge donation in munchies, nuts, raisins and chocolate from our Czech volunteer friends People in Need, made us proud to share their donation to the real people in need in the park especially they were our true inspiration and role models back in the days of Berkasovo muddy hell. Thank you!

We again see lots of interesting people, young, educated, intelligent kids and students that joined the flow, even political asylum seekers from Afghanistan like a guy who, faced with a brutality of Talibans towards his family burned down Quran and had to leave. We met Rahan, a great guy from a border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan who managed to smuggle himself into Serbia under the lower platform of a train, along with his buddies. He now decided to try his luck in Serbia, applied for asylum and volunteers as a translator in Miksaliste and Info Center. For sure, the star of the day was 4-months old baby Sultan who is traveling with 22 year old mom and 20 year old dad, worried but with a smile on their face, thanks to the baby boy.

Exciting times we are living. Not good, for sure, but exciting, yes.