Through the Balkan Route
The Rise in Pushbacks and Police Allegations at the European Union
The flow of migration for people trying to enter the European Union has changed considerably over the past three years. With over 300 recorded persons being pushed back into Serbia from EU borders in recent months this article explores the people working at the forefront.
By Madi Bolanos & Victoria Reis
May 31th, 2018
One of the guys
by Madi Bolanos
Sitting in the back of a torn down factory, just a 10-minute drive from the nearest city, roughly 25 men wait for a tap on the shoulder that signifies the start of the "game."
“Every night we go and try to cross the border around 1 or 2 am,” says Kashi, 21, from Pakistan, “Sometimes the police beat you, sometimes they are good people.”
Every night around midnight, Kashi makes his way into the forest that separates Croatia and Serbia in hopes he will finally make it across the border into the EU. He has been stopped by Croatian border police every time.
“They ask ‘why are you coming this way?’"Kashi said.
Kashi is the third of nine siblings. In Pakistan, he worked in medicine, as a part of an American NGO, and occasionally with American oil. His hope is to make it to Germany or Italy where he can work to send money back to his family in Pakistan.
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Roughly a year ago Kashi was beaten by border police trying to cross the border into Croatia. Once the border police have caught someone, they are immediately sent back into Serbia.
“Sometimes we walk for one to three days but they catch us,” states Kashi, "So we waste the time we have been walking and we are tired, hungry, and in pain.”
Kashi has been in Serbia for two years. He was placed into his first refugee camp for a year before relocating to another for ten months. After almost two years of being stuck in Belgrade, Serbia with no hope of getting into the EU he decided to try his luck in Sid, a small town closer to the Croatian border.
But he is not in a refugee camp now. Kashi is staying at a “spot” where persons stay when they are in need of shelter but do not wish to register for Asylum in that country. Often NGOs will go to these spots and provide basic necessities such as food, clothing, water for showering etc.
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The Increase of Pushback and Police Force
An increased number of pushbacks into Serbia occurred in the latter half of 2017, according to the UNHCR of Serbia’s Snapshot report.
“They call it the game because you have to be really lucky to cross the border,” Marc Pratllusa, a long-time volunteer with No Name Kitchen a non-government organization working in Sid, said, “In Croatia, there are more policemen patrolling the border so the people trying to cross have to be really lucky or have a good smuggler.”
The game is a common term used by NGOs and people trying to cross the border. The term describes crossing the border without being detected by border police. For many people, this can also mean not being caught on a bus, walking, running, or by taxi. To avoid being caught the people trying to cross the border travel at night through the mountains.
“It’s tough because 95% of the time they have the chance of getting their phone stolen, money taken or beaten up and then they’re just thrown back into Serbia,” Pratllusa said.
"Migrants seeking asylum in EU countries are not interested in finding it in Balkan countries despite the fact that it is quite safe for them physically,” John Andrew Young, Senior Protection Officer at the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees Serbia, said, " They are also looking for a way to provide for their children and so many perceive they can not do that in Serbia."
The UNHCR is completely out of reality with what is going on on the grounds,” stated Tajana Tadic volunteer with the NGO Are You Syrious. “If safe means being in a state of bare life then yes it is safe, no one will shoot you on the street that true.”
Nevertheless Young states “If they want asylum in these Balkan countries they can get it.”
Yet the Asylum Office of Serbia only registered 244 persons in 2017. Of the 244 persons, 236 of them applied for asylum but only half of them were interviewed. In total, only 14 asylum applications were upheld, while 11 cases were rejected.
“The movement isn't over, people continue to pass through and some of them pass through without anyone detecting it,” stated Young, “Not the government, not the UNHCR, not the NGOs ever run into them because the passage through has become sophisticated.”
As the counts of violent push back allegations rose, NGOs at the borders of Serbia began to take note- literally documenting the allegation. Rigardu, a non-governmental organization launched a project known as Border Violence in 2016 aimed to document all police violence allegations to bring awareness to what they deem a rising issue.
“Certain things that are being described are happening,” stated Young in reference to the border violence report, “They are painting a picture that exists.”
“The [asylum seeking] situation was quite calm in Croatia until around 2013,” stated Sara Kekus from Center of Peace Studies who works directly with asylum, integration, and human security.
After October 16, 2015, when Hungary closed all its border, the movement of people was directed towards the Slovenian border by Croatian authorities.
Following the change in routes Slovenian authorities announced a limit of 2,500 people per day when the average number of people attempting to cross from Serbia to Croatia was approximately 5,000 people per day.
Increased Pressure By Croatian Police
As pressure to keep people from crossing the border increased, so did the criminalization of solidarity for NGO's such as Are You Syrious.
"When a family entered Croatia to avoid being pushed back to Serbia for the third time, they turned to us to help them seek international protection, " Tajana Tajic head volunteer at Are You Syrious said, "after which our volunteer immediately contacted the police and went with the police to meet the family," .
The family was already in Croatia when they sent a message with their location to Are You Syrious. The NGO then sent the volunteer because his physical presence was necessary in order to stop the push back, according to Tajic.
The volunteer did not go directly to the family but instead to the police, aware that going to the family first might insinuate he helped them cross the border, an act that could worsen the family's chances of being granted asylum and have legal consequences for himself. Once he reached the police and identified himself he was able to translate between the police and the family. He went to the police a second time and gave a statement about what he was doing out in the field and how he got there.
Unfortunately, the six-year-old within that family, Madina Hussiny, was hit and killed by a train in November 2017 after her family’s asylum claim had been rejected by the Croatian authorities. Authorities ordered the family to walk along the train tracks until they reached Serbia.
Shortly after the death of Madina Hussiny, the familiy's story gained huge media attention. Despite the volunteer's efforts to stay within the laws while helping the family, the Ministry of Interior informed the Are You Syrious volunteer that criminal charges would be brought against him for allegedly planning with the family to cross the border illegally.
“The Ministry of Affairs has explicitly accused us of smuggling people,” stated Tajic from Are You Syrious, ”because by the nation’s Aliens Act smuggling includes ‘planning and inciting’ which are both ambiguous categories.”
The Hussiny family has since filed criminal charges against the police of the Republic of Croatia on the grounds of negligent homicide of their six-year-old daughter Madina.
NGOs at the border
A group of volunteers at the Are You Syrious office in Zagreb, Croatia reported police officers outside their office, demanding identification from them, last week. The week before a group of volunteers was stopped and questioned by police. These instances have become more common with the continued influx of people entering Croatia, according to volunteers from Are You Syrious.
“On Wednesday there were four people here because someone told them this would be a place where they could get help in getting asylum,” Karolina Rugle from Are You Syrious stated, “As well as Friday where two came from Bosnia because they are all afraid of the pushbacks.”
Are You Syrious is a non-governmental organization that focuses on humanitarian and integration work. The volunteers give advice on getting through the asylum system but legally, they are not allowed to mention asylum unless initially provoked by the people seek it. Following that conversation, the volunteers contact the governmental institutions, where they can start the process of seeking asylum.
“But during the last four weeks on average there was a visit like that every week,” Tajic stated, “We try to explain that we are not apart of the Asylums system and the only thing that we can do is call the police because the police is the only instance where they can go and lodge their claim for asylum.”
Not only does Are You Syrious aid asylum seekers, but there is also a free shop where refugees and asylum seekers can pick up clothing that has been donated or receive hygiene products that they need, in the downstairs portion of their office every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, according to Rugle.
Along with the educational work with children at the Hotel Porin, a reception center on the outer part of Zagreb and Mothers and Children, Are You Syrious is working to collaborate with the University of Zagreb in contacting the Croatian language course.
They work together with other local organizations like the Center for Peace Studies to put a bigger spotlight on incidents of police brutality in order to ignite change. Center for Peace Studies (CMS) is an NGO that began 20 years ago. It emerged in the 90s after a volunteer initiative oriented around the antiwar campaign against the war taking place in the Balkan region.
“We’ve been dealing with Asylum issues since 2003 when we saw the Asylum situation begin to exist in Croatia,” stated Kekus from CMS.
The Center for Peace Studies now has three programs; asylum integration and human security, combatting inequalities, and non-violence affirmation and peace studies.
Other NGOs closer to the border towns in Serbia offer aid by providing food, water, or clean clothes.
“We take violence reports, which means if they are beaten up at the border by Croatian police then we take a record of it,” stated Marc Pratlusa from No Name Kitchen, “ We might send them with MSF, Doctors Without Borders, and other organizations that are in charge of making litigations.”
At the spot where Kashi is located in Sid, water for showering is provided three times a week, food twice a day, and references for medical treatment if necessary.
The challenge at the Balkan Route
In recent weeks the path of migration has moved again and changed to go through the border between Bosnia and Croatia.
“There are resources being diverted to Bosnia to handle the rising situation," Young stated, “So more people are starting to come through again although the total number doesn’t compare at all to what it was a couple of years ago.”
In the Month of March alone the number of free legal aid being diverted to Bosnia has risen from 141 to 456, according to UNHCR Bosnia Snapshot report.
“The border controls in Croatia have improved a lot,” Marc stated, “ But it looks like in Bosnia they are more relaxed with this influx of migrants.”
The Balkan Route
The Balkans is being used as a route for irregular migrants coming from Middle East and Northern Africa.
The Start Of The Refugee Crisis
The number of asylum seekers going to Croatia increased following Croatia's entrance into the EU.
2013
13, July - Hungary implemented a razor-wire fence along the country's border with Serbia.
22 September- EU ministers decided to distribute 120,000 asylum seekers from arrival countries Greece and Italy to other EU nations.
March- Start of the EU-Turkey Agreement.
2016
21, November Five-year-old Afghan Madina Hussyni died after being hit by a train
2017
20, November- Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia only allow refugees from Syria Iraq and Afghanistan to enter their borders.
August-Thousands of refugees pour into Germany after the Dublin Regulation was suspended for Syrian Refugees.
2015
The UN Refugee Agency reported 63,000 migrants had arrived in Greece and 62,000 in Italy during the first half of 2015.
8, March Balkan Route is closed.
Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia announced that only migrants who plan to seek asylum in the country, or those with clear humanitarian needs will be allowed entry and that those without valid documents will be turned back. And Hungary declared a state of emergency due to the migrant crisis, and deployed additional police and military at the borders.
Gallery
 Border Serbia-Bosnia |  Jungle where the migrants cross to get to EU Border Serbia-Hungary |  Border Serbia-Hungary |
|---|---|---|
 Spot for migrants Sid, Serbia |  Border Serbian-Croatian |  Spot for migrants Sid, Serbia |
 Rigardu's Donation Subotica, Serbia |  Rigardu's Donation Subotica, Serbia |  Rigardu's Donation Subotica, Serbia |
 Rigardu's Donation Subotica, Serbia |
Rigardu
Are you syrious
No name no kitchen
CMS
About the project
Through the Balkan Route was created as part of the final project at the World Politics, Multimedia and Journalism's program at the Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX). The theme was chosen by the students involved in the project. The goal is to inform the public about the struggles these people face on their journey into the EU.
Meet the Team
Madi Bolanos
Journalist student from
California, USA
Victoria Reis
Journalist student from PUC-Rio
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil