How much does the human suffering cost?
Migrations have lasted so long that we cannot even trace their very beginning, and they are so intensive that we cannot see the end to them in the near future. People on the move from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are in some form of limbo for months on end, during their stay in Serbia. We have already written about this extensively. Living conditions in reception centers and asylum centers are often on a very low level, the asylum procedure is slow, and to acquire a work permit one needs to wait for minimum of 9 months from the moment one applies for asylum. All things considered, in addition to further fortification of EU external borders at the north of Serbia, constant presence of foreign border police forces at northern and southern borders of Serbia, as well as police raids in which police forces forcibly transfer refugees from the northern border areas to the south of Serbia on a regular basis, has led to people on the move being pushed into the hands of smugglers, organized criminal groups of a small number of people who, using networks of influences, hold power over a large number of people on the move. They charge extremely high prices to refugees for attempts to cross a border and take advantage of their situation in order to force them to physical work, recruit them into the smuggling groups, force them to unwanted sexual acts and other forms of exploitation.
We highlight that all of this would not be possible if the people were not systematically denied access by the European Union who are responsible for flourishing of many smuggling groups, or at least the smugglers’ influence would be negligible.
In our conversations with local people from Sombor, we have often heard how the city has benefitted economically and that refugees bring significant amounts of money to Sombor by paying for hotels, hostels, buying clothes or food in the grocery shops etc. This is why most of the locals think that it is good that people on the move come to their city because many of their fellow citizens had found some form of employment during the refugee crises. Taxi drivers have also profited considerably and they do not deny it. For a drive from Preševo to Sombor or Subotica they charge 150 to 200 euros per person. Even the smuggling groups have started opening improvised markets and fast food restaurants in the informal settlements in which they would charge refugees 15 euros for a falafel. In short, microeconomics of Sombor and other towns near the border area in the north is flourishing based on other people’s fears and marginalization.
Refugees themselves sometimes tell us that they had spent more than 1000 euros upon their return from Preševo to the north, so they are forced to clean or do other maintenance jobs in an informal settlement, until the smugglers decide that the person has earned to have another attempt at crossing the border. People on the move are robbed by smugglers, by the border police (mostly Hungarian, but there are testimonies of the misconduct by the Serbian police too), by the local community with higher prices for accommodation or water or food in grocery shops or gas stations, and their only option is to suffer through it and push through hoping to find peace and a permanent home somewhere.
In addition to all of this, it is devastating to learn the fact we have acquired through our field work with people on the move: a single attempt to cross a Hungarian border is charged 4 to 6 thousand euros per person by smugglers. The same attempt to Bosnia is charged 500 euros, but once in Bosnia the people have not reached the EU yet and there are still more borders and police to fear at the EU external borders. All of this continues to happen while the economies continue flourishing and people’s wellbeing is being degraded due to stress and poverty, and the end to this unfortunately is nowhere to be seen.
Translation of the text at the photo is: “You create your own destiny how you want it.”