Driven crazy by the situation
The refugees we meet in the field do not give up on the idea of a better life in a country where there is no war, where they would be treated with dignity and where they would live at peace, finally. However, we do sometimes meet someone who has had enough of the journey, police violence, theft and humiliation, someone with the only wish at that moment is to leave the squat at the border and go back home, even though the home doesn’t exist anymore and there is war raging.
On one occasion we spoke to a young man who had sold his house in Syria for 10 000 euros, and started his journey to Europe, because he could not bear the uncertainty and the war. “I regret doing this, now that I see we are not wanted anywhere, that we are humiliated, beaten and robbed on a daily basis. I regret all of this, maybe it would be better if I had stayed in Syria and waited to get killed in the street, but now I can’t do even that”, the man stated in despair. When asked what were his next steps, he said he didn’t know, that he needed sleep and rest, and then to think about what to do next.
In another field visit, near Preševo, a town near the border between Serbia and North Macedonia, we met another young man from Syria, who was walking with a sense of ease which can be spotted only on people determined in their cause. When we stopped to talk to him, and asked him why he was walking on the road in plain sight, while most refugees take pathways through the mountains in order not to be spotted by the police, he said with a smile on his face: “I am going home. I can not go through this torture anymore. Europe does not want us. They torture us. They would not let us into the EU, so I decided to go home.” Hopefully he wouldn’t be intercepted going in this direction, we said. He raised his hand to say goodbye and continued walking down the road he had already previously crossed with great difficulties, just in the opposite direction.
The hypocrisy of the EU, beatings and thefts by the police officers from EU member states, mostly from Bulgaria and Hungary, is a shame to Europe who proclaims to be a preacher of human rights to all other countries, while practicing these rights in its territories only partially and in theory. Dreams of people who had to flee their homes, dreams of peace and normal life are getting harder to fulfill and now it has become clear that those who are in power to make them come true do not care at all.