Klikaktiv’s press statement on the occasion of World Refugee Day (20th June) 2022

This year Serbia marks World Refugee Day with 4412 refugees in official accomodation centers, while Klikaktiv estimates that there are additional 3000 refugees sleeping rough in forests and abandoned buildings in the northern border areas with Croatia, Hungary and Romania. Despite “the Balkan route” being officially deemed closed, organizations in the field identify newly arrived refugees in the country on a daily basis, as well as many attempts to leave Serbia for the EU member states. While the world witnesses war devastation in Ukraine, a large number of refugees in Serbia remain invisible to the legal and social protection system, as well as to the general public.

Klikaktiv’s team who works directly with refugees in the field, providing legal counseling and psycho-social support, has regularly received testimonials from its beneficiaries on risks they face daily in Serbia: physical and psychological violence at the hands of border police from Croatia, Hungary and Romania, isolation and discrimination from the local communities, fake news produced by right wing groups and media.

Today, when we mark World Refugee Day, Klikaktiv wants to point out that:

• 70% of refugees in Serbia come from Afghanistan and Syria, two countries that continue to face armed conflicts, continuous food scarcity and gender based violence against women and girls. People who flee these catastrophes in search for a safe haven, as is the definition of being a refugee, are still predominantly labeled as “illegal migrants”. This term not only does not show the real situation in the field, but also further worsens the position of these depriviliged individuals.

• Almost all refugees our team has spoken to have reported to us physical and psychological violence they endure at the hands of Croatian, Hungarian and Romanian police. They particularly point out the cruelty of Hungarian police, who occasionally use batons and police dogs used to bite people, at the border between Serbia and Hungary. According to these testimonies, members of Austrian and Czech police are sometimes present during these violent actions.

In March 2022, the government of Serbia made a decision to grant temporary protection to all refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, which provides access to health and social protection to these people. This is a welcomed step towards providing support to war refugees in Serbia. Yet, all other refugees in the country are excluded from the benefits of this decision. Hence we call upon the government of Serbia once again to extend the effect of the decision to include all refugees in its territory, regardless of their ethnic background, race, religion or any other personal quality. In this way, the government would ensure an adequate humanitarian response to the needs of all refugees without discrimination, and lower the possibility of these people being exploited by smugglers of traffickers in human beings.

Finally, we would like to ask our fellow citizens of Serbia not to take all news about refugees and migrants for granted, but to have a critical approach to it and further research about the real plight people on the move in Serbia go through.

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This field report is prepared within the Project "Protecting Civic Space – Regional Civil Society Development Hub" financed by Sida and implemented by BCSDN".

The content of this document, and the information and views presented do not represent the official positions and opinions of Sida and BCSDN. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in this document lies entirely with the author.