ŠID - border with Croatia

A visit to Šid, the town on the border with Croatia. It is an hour-long ride from Belgrade. When we got there we met few refugees from whom we had contacts. There were two of them. We met on the shores of a small lake called Sot lake, near the village with the same name: Sot. The lakeshore is completely surrounded by birch trees so there is a lot of yellow leaves in the water. One of the refugees was very injured. He is underaged and Croatian police beat him brutally. He is having a lot of pain in his left hip and right shoulder, and he claims that he can not go any further until his wounds are healed. That is a very rare situation because people are trying to get to their desired destinations no matter what and when someone is telling you that he is willing to stay in Serbia for one or two years if it’s going to heal his wounds then you know that he is in a serious problem. Another problem is that kids who left Afghanistan are never telling their parents or relatives that they have some trouble on their journey. That is the case with our friend. He wants to stay in Serbia to get better but he didn’t tell his parents anything about his injuries because they would be worried and they can’t understand why he wants to stay in Serbia and “lose” two years of his life when he has already spent 4 years on the road. So now he is in a very unpleasant situation. We advised him to tell his parents about the injuries because only then they will understand. He said he will think about it, but he repeatedly says that he can’t go anywhere further with those injuries. We made an agreement that he will inform us in the next couple of weeks about his decision and if he decides to stay in Serbia we will help him to get access to the camp and health care that he needs. While we were sitting on the shores of a small lake one man who was swimming in the lake approached us because his car was parked nearby and asked us how are we in a very pleasant way. We chat a bit with him about the water and asked if it is good for swimming. He told us that the water is great but that he is not going far from the beach because he can not swim. It was a bit funny. A man in his fifties, two meters tall and probably 150 kilos heavy he looked in the lake like a giant that is having the best time of his life and after that he is telling us that he doesn’t know how to swim. Unfortunately, not everyone is so kind to refugees and people who work with them as it is a non-swimming giant. Refugees in Šid have to be very careful because there is a lot of anti-migrant groups that are writing fascistic graffiti on the walls of buildings. Also, many people from one village near buy are well connected with the border police so when the border police catch refugees while they are trying to cross the border they send the information to this group of people who are then basically hunting and hurting refugees in the woods while they are trying to reach back to their squats on foot. That is the story that eight guys are telling us in the woods near the river Bosut. They are a part of a 30-man group and they have told us that there are another four or five small groups of people from Afghanistan. According to their story Serbian police were good to them before the coronavirus quarantine, but then during quarantine police changed their behavior towards them and become more violent, and now after quarantine, the police is starting to be good to them again. In the group of eight young males were three underaged boys. One of them told me that he is only fourteen years old and another one sounded so proud and mystical when he told me: “I was a small kid, but the woods made me grow up very fast.” 

In Serbia, throughout whole this year anti-migration movements are getting louder and stronger day by day and they have no understanding and tolerance for anything that is not known to them. That is especially shown in border areas where refugees have to be very careful where they are going and how long they are staying in any place. Luckily for all of us, the anti-migration movement is still a minority even in the border area and most of the people are minding their own business and even helping refugees when and if they can.

—- VUK VUCKOVIC