In the last few weeks, the situation for people on the move in Northern Serbia has become increasingly difficult and tenuous. On October 28th, the Serbian Minister of the Interior Bratislav Gašić held a press conference announcing a sweeping military and policing campaign focusing on Northern Serbia. This special operation joins together police units from Serbia and Hungary, and includes the involvement of heavily armed Serbian Gendarmerie special military units. During the press conference, Gašić stated that the special operation will not stop “until the last perpetrator of any criminal act, causing any incidents, shootings and everything, is removed from the territory of Subotica, Kikinda, and Sombor.”

The public facing reason for the special operation was a shooting that took place between groups of smugglers in the Horgoš area that resulted in the deaths of three people believed to be smugglers. The shooting has given the Serbian government a perfect excuse to ramp up violence against people on the move. Over the last month, Collective Aid and our partner organizations have seen a steady increase in violent evictions at temporary living sites near the Serbian-Hungarian border. These evictions often take place late at night or very early in the morning, while people are struggling to sleep as the weather gets colder and colder. During these violent evictions, people’s possessions are systematically destroyed by Serbian police. Their phones are often confiscated or smashed, suitcases and backpacks are searched, and sometimes even the clothes of people on the move are taken and destroyed by the police. Beatings and physical violence against people on the move have become routine during evictions.

As part of the special operation, people are being forcibly removed from temporary living sites and bussed to official reception centers, which are under the control of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration. One such center located in Subotica usually houses between 100 to 300 people, including women and children. On November 8th, the office of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration officially announced that the Subotica Reception Center was closed, and provided no information on where those who had been staying at the center were taken.

Closed entrance gate at the Reception Center in Subotica

On November 9th, a small team of Collective Aid volunteers met with people camped near the Sombor reception center. The area near the official camp was once a public park, but is now being used to house those classified as “irregular migrants” by Serbian authorities when the facility runs out of beds.

Just inside the park, with a view down the road to the entrance to the camp, we met a Syrian man who told us about what he had experienced since arriving at the reception center twelve days ago. Before fleeing the war in Syria, Adnan was a student and the oldest of three brothers. Now aged 18, he left his home three months ago and hopes to seek asylum in Holland. Since leaving Syria, he has traveled from Turkey into Bulgaria, before making his way into Serbia. “I want to work in Holland to send money back to my family in Syria”.

Adnan and his friend Omar, who met while crossing the Bulgarian border into Serbia.

The situation at the Sombor camp is dire. People are essentially being prevented from leaving the camp by the commissariat and the Serbian police force stationed around the area. Adnan asked us if we had any information about when things would change. “When will they open the road? We want to leave. We just want them to open the way”.

A guard tower on the outskirts of Sombor Reception Center.

Lack of food remains a pressing issue for many people stuck inside. People we spoke to told us that they were hungry and didn’t know how much longer they could survive on the meager food handed out by camp authorities. Some said they hadn’t eaten in days. Others we talked to mentioned that they were scared to leave the camp and venture into town to buy food. They said that when people try to leave the camp, they are often picked up in town by Serbian police and forced to pay bribes of up to 500 euros to avoid getting taken to camps in Southern Serbia. Those forced to sleep on the ground outside the center said that the make-shift shelters they had constructed to protect against the wind and rain had been destroyed by Serbian police. A young man from Syria mentioned that the tent he had been sleeping in was slashed to pieces during the night by police. He also told us that his clothes had been taken from him, and that the blanket he was using to keep warm at night was confiscated and dumped into a pile of things that the police had forcibly taken from people. The items were then set alight and left to burn on the ground as the police watched.

Access to medical care is also almost non-existent in the Sombor reception center. Scabies and other infectious diseases have been left untreated, causing outbreaks to rapidly spread to new arrivals. We were introduced to a man who had a terrible burn on his arm from an accident while trying to cook a meal over an open fire. He repeatedly went to the clinic at the reception center to seek medical care, but was refused treatment without any explanation and told not to come back.

Upon leaving the area, we were stopped by police at a checkpoint directly outside the entrance to the camp. While our documents were being checked, we were asked by the commissariat why we were attempting to provide aid to those inside. “Why do you bring things to camp? They have everything in camp. There is food and medical care inside”. The narrative that the Serbian government is putting out through local television and radio shows about its treatment of “irregular migrants” stands in direct contrast to what our organization (and other partner organizations) are seeing on the ground on a daily basis. The stories of organized violence by the Serbian police, unsanitary and dangerous living conditions within the camps, as well as the denial of medical care to those in need, all illustrate a cohesive policy to make life as difficult as possible for people on the move in Serbia.

Words and Pictures by Josh Zimber

Special Operation in Northern Serbia