Across Europe's Borders

Serbia and Croatia are two seemingly rival countries and share a border with other states to form the European Union's eastern borders. A few years ago, Bosnia joined the border regime because refugees found a new route through its mountain ranges moving into the south. Things have been documented by a number of volunteer-run organisations.

State-run camps were created following the destruction of the barracks in Belgrade train station, where a large number of people from the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia lived, and informally organized themselves with the help of the local people.

With the introduction of the so-called Commissariat (KIRS): a coalition of police force and social workers, responsible for camp administration, the situation has become very complex. In particular, NGOs have become very obedient to government demands. Nevertheless, many refugees decided to move into the forests on their own and outside the system, surviving however they can, but with little freedom.

Right now, things look bleak. Governments are getting more authoritarian and local people are not anymore interested in the situation. Like the Roma, the refugees are totally excluded from society. Under these conditions, they have no chance to organise and demand basic human rights, as their whole lives revolve around mere survival.

Over the winter, we have seen police forcibly relocating refugees to inhospitable areas through daily and covered, almost clandestine actions. Sometimes the people are moved to another country, and a game of human ping-pong is played between Balkan and Eastern states: close friends and families are being torn apart in this way. The Corona virus made it politically possible for the government to deploy the army. The area has long been militarised, but levels are now above the limit, although this does not affect the white Europeans. The military only targets the immigrants so that they stay away from the border. During Corona they were even locked up behind fences.

Another threat is the persecution of those who speak out about the abuses being done or the lack of necessities and essentials in the camps. The police are more than happy to put critics in jail. As soon as there is space in the prisons, the police find some random people and deposit them there. The harshest punishments are given to those involved in getting people across the border, and no distinction is made between only smuggling and trafficking (with real coercion taking place) - everyone is punished equally. But it's unthinkable to cross the border without a guide who already knows the area well and understands its geography. Many young people take on this type of job guiding groups into the jungle on the way to Croatia and Slovenia and then return. They do this probably because of insufficient money, but also because they know Europe is not an idyllic place either, and want to do something interesting and useful with themselves. These boys unfortunately pay a high price because they won't be able to leave in many years.

People are attacked and threatened as punishment for a basic desire to help other people. The UN organisations only make the situation worse by backing the camp system and the border police - both of which are a barrier to people moving freely through the border area and into safety in Europe.

Now, new ways of being and resistance emerge every day. It also explains why this amount of repression happens.