WELCOME TO SERBIA: BEATING
In addition to regular outreach work at the EU external borders in the north of Serbia, Klikaktiv also monitors entry points to the country at its southern borders with Bulgaria and with North Macedonia through annual field trips. A couple of weeks ago, during one of our such trips to Pirot, a city near the Serbian – Bulgarian border, in conversations with the locals living in the neighboring villages, we were told that the refugees can be seen in the area at any given time in the day, as they walk over from Bulgaria. A few of the older villagers also added that the Serbian – Bulgarian border is so geographically difficult terrain that even the experienced might get confused where the border point is and if they were in Serbia or Bulgaria at the moment.
While driving through the villages on the Stara Planina, near the border area, in order to get acquainted with this difficult terrain that the refugees face, we were suddenly stopped by a man waving his hands to us, having just jumped from the high grass he had been hiding in before we appeared. We stopped. It was a man from Afghanistan, asking if he was in Bulgaria or Serbia. He asked several times, in simple English: “Serbia? Bulgaria? Serbia? Pirot?” after which he showed with his hand towards the surrounding hills trying to let us know that he needs directions towards Pirot. We gave him some food and water we had on us, which he drank and ate in an instant, with an area of someone who had been starving and not having anything to ear for several days.
Klikaktiv’s cultural mediator spoke with the man, when he shared that he had been beaten up both by the Bulgarian and by the Serbian border police, showing bruises he had obtained on his head. He added that he got separated from the people he had been travelling with in one of the police brutal raids and that at the moment he was lost alone in the mountain, walking through the high grass trying to find his way to Pirot. He knew we are legally not allowed to give him a drive, even in a difficult situation as was his, as we could have faced charges for smuggling if stopped by the police. The only thing he asked was to be shown directions to Pirot or Dimitrovgrad so he could access one of the local camps for refugees. From the spot we were standing, he had 14 hours walk to Pirot, according to Google Maps. He decided to take the road. After a short rest, he thanked us for the directions, jumped back in the high grass hoping to hiding through it will reach Pirot.
Just the mere thought that in a two hour drive we had met a man lost in the mountains, speaks to the the fact that his case is not a sole one: people on the move who are exhausted, beaten up and lost people at the Serbian – Bulgarian border area are many.
On a weekly basis, hundreds of people pass through the area, on foot and beaten, in search for safety and peace who they cannot have in their own country at the moment. Yet, the countries they walk through make an effort to remind them constantly how cruel one can be towards a man who you deem “illegal”.