Bulgaria by foot: Experiences of the Balkan Route

In Belgrade, Collective Aid volunteers often meet individuals arriving in Serbia for the first time after long journeys through Turkey and Bulgaria. 

This was the case for Sayeed*, a 26-year-old graduate of mechanical engineering. I met him in Belgrade, where he had arrived a few hours earlier following a harrowing journey on foot through Bulgaria. 

Sayeed comes from Afghanistan, having fled after the Taliban’s takeover in 2021. Life for him became increasingly difficult, and he was left with no other option but to leave his home.

“For all my family, it was dangerous”, Sayeed explained. “We can’t work in Afghanistan, we can’t live in Afghanistan…. We can’t [do] anything in Afghanistan.” 

He left the country alone with a small backpack and hoped for a better life in Europe. The main demographic for people we meet along the Balkan route are men of working age. Often, they leave before their family as they are primary targets for governments or organizations due to their labour and military service. It is then easier for the family to claim asylum as a family right and take safer routes after the primary provider has claimed asylum in a state.

Sayeed’s journey is one of the most common routes of irregular migration for people wishing to reach Europe. For years, the Western Balkans have been a popular path to reach the Schengen border by northern Serbia and Hungary. 

Most travelled migration routes through the western Balkans.

The journey from Turkey to Serbia took 10 days and was made entirely on foot. In order to avoid the notoriously violent Bulgarian police. The group of people he travelled with went through the country’s mountains and forests. They avoided any main roads or towns while making the journey. “We had no water, no food. We were 10 days in the forest. We couldn’t go by the main road… if we did, then police would come,” Sayeed said.

His fear of the police was not unfounded. To enter Bulgaria, Sayeed had to struggle across the country’s heavily fortified border with Turkey. In a bid to keep people from entering the country, Bulgaria started constructing a 259km long fence across its external borders in 2016. 

While attempting to cross the heavily guarded fence, Sayeed’s group was intercepted and attacked by Bulgarian border police. “There you see it…” he said, pointing at a criss-cross of scars on his arm. “The police, they beat me.” Eventually, he made it across the border and into the EU, marking the start of his gruelling hike through Bulgaria’s mountains.

A lack of food and water is one of the most commonly reported complaints for people on the move who arrive in Belgrade after having travelled through Bulgaria. Teenagers as young as 16 often tell Collective Aid’s volunteers about not having eaten for over a week, and volunteers occasionally see people who are seriously unwell from lack of food. 

Sayeed was no exception. On his fifth day of walking continuously without stopping for food or water, he felt ill. He stopped at a pond to drink water, having become delirious from dehydration. “I started vomiting. I couldn’t walk…” he said. “Then [the group leader] beat me for not going with the group.” 

Belgrade is not the end of the journey, but the city is becoming increasingly hostile to people on the move. Police evictions of the parks people stay in are becoming more frequent and often involve transporting individuals to southwestern towns such as Sjenica and Šid or registering them in reportedly overcrowded and poorly run state-run reception centres on the outskirts of cities. 

Sayeed’s story is harrowing, but it is in no way unusual. In July 2023, Collective Aid volunteers met hundreds of people on the move in Belgrade who had gone through similar journeys in Bulgaria. The Balkan Route was formally closed in 2016 by the European Union following the signing of the EU-Turkey Deal, but this has had little tangible impact. The Western Balkan Route remains one of the most frequently used routes of irregular migration to Europe.

As Bulgaria draws closer to Schengen Zone membership, the country remains a key transit point on refugees’ journeys to Europe. Police violence towards people on the move is becoming systemic in the country, and people continue to pass through Bulgaria despite border controls becoming stricter. 

Collective Aid’s operations in Serbia offer respite and much-needed safe spaces for people after enduring the journey through Bulgaria on foot. 

*Names have been altered to protect anonymity. 

Words by Monica Thorne, August 2023, Belgrade.