During a visit to Obrenovac, our team were told by the people who remained outside the centre that the Comisserat and Serbian police had offered people the opportunity to sleep inside the centre for the night, only to detain them and push them back to Bulgaria the following morning. This is quite literally a form of entrapment and a manipulation of the vulnerability of the people on the move (POM), which the authorities are creating and adding to in the first place. The authorities would have done this, being completely aware of the severe needs of the POM, who had likely not not sufficiently rested for days, if not weeks.

Pushbacks are illegal under International Humanitarian Law and defined by the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) as “a variety of state measures aimed at forcing refugees and migrants out of their territory while obstructing access to applicable legal and procedural frameworks”, yet they remain a daily occurrence along the Balkan route.

Pictured: Fire pit in bushland by the river, used to cook a hot meal

The team were made aware of the pushback just a few days after the event, when distributing NFI (Non-Food Items), such as clothing, hygiene products and tents, and it was very apparent that it had caused additional stress to the POM who remained. Any uncertainty around the pushback was confirmed when someone was on Facetime to a friend of theirs that had been a part of the pushback, and was now in a camp in Sofia, Bulgaria. This stress only grew over the next few weeks, as there was a sense that the POM were trapped outside the centre, with the Hungarian border to the north unachievable due to the Special Operation, the Bosnian border crossing becoming more difficult due to further police operations being carried out, and the inhumane pushbacks in the south to North Macedonia. Even though the Bosnian crossing has proven to be fatally dangerous at times for POM, many people preferred to at least make the attempt, rather than stay in Serbia or be pushed further back to Bulgaria.

Throughout all the distributions, it was reported back to the team by POM that the conditions were forever hostile - with the police visiting the sites they were staying at daily, verbally and physically abusing them, destroying/confiscating their belongings (mainly tents and blankets). It is very evident that this tactic was being employed by the authorities to intimidate people and force them away from the site by any means possible. On occasion, there were even attempts by the authorities to deter us from providing services to people, however, once all our documentation was proven to be legal they allowed us to continue.

Pictured: Tents destroyed outside Obrenovac AC

The situation became one vicious and cruel cycle, as the authorities would wait until we had left, or even until the next day, to then destroy the tents we had distributed, which were offering at least some respite from the winter conditions. It was cruel by design to force people away from staying in the area. It is important to understand that the Obrenovac AC has a capacity of 1200, with only 50 people currently staying there, which arguably adds to a dynamic of psychological torment, as it is very viable that the authorities could provide help, and the people trapped outside can literally see the almost empty premises.

The ill treatment carried out by the authorities before and after the pushback, shows both the inhumanity of their actions and also their disregard for people’s legal and human rights.

For the weeks after the pushback, up until the first week of March, the team saw the numbers of people staying outside Obrenovac dwindle. During the first few distributions we met 70 people, by the 1st March, there was no one. Throughout the weeks visiting Obrenovac, the sense of unease and the psychological stress of waiting around in limbo, could be felt when talking with the young people we met. As a result, it was no surprise that people left when they could.

Pictured: Playing sports whilst waiting for phones to recharge

To provide additional context regarding the Obrenovac AC staff and their position, it is worth noting that the team and NNK asked them several times for any updates regarding why they weren’t allowing POM use the AC facilities and the response was always bluntly along the lines of “email us any questions” (which has been done several times to no response). On the last distribution, the team were also told an outright lie, that “the camps in the north have now reopened”.

The camps in the north had not been reopened and on the 23rd of March it was discovered that further asylum and reception centres across the country had also been closed. Those already residing in the centres are now effectively being detained without cause. There are around 250 people in both Sjenica and Tutin, numbers in other camps are unknown so the total figure will be higher.

De-facto detention, pushbacks and ill-treatment should never be the price someone pays for a roof over their heads. We can only hope that these people find real safety, welcome and respect for their human rights at some future point on their journey.

Words by Nicholas Clifford

Photos by Nicholas Clifford and Daniel Schooler

Obrenovac Asylum Centre: A safe bed for a night or a starting point for a pushback?