There have been people on the move living in and around the French city of Calais since the early 1990s, prompting the Red Cross to open the first official welcome centre in the neighbouring town of Sangatte in 1999 (Alcalde and Portos 2018). This centre was used to provide support to any displaced persons who were passing through the city. However, it was closed down three years later because politicians claimed that the existence of the centre was attracting more forced migrants. The closing of the centre resulted in the settlement that would become known as “the Jungle”. It developed out of discarded tents and wooden pallets, anything that could be used to construct a make-shift shelter. It was then completely evacuated under the orders of President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009.
Read MoreFluttering through the thick air of division and discord within the auditorium, the last protest directed at the MEPs in Brussels unfolded prior to the most significant vote in the EU Parliament in years. Coordinates marking the location of shipwrecks and deceased people on the move (POM) at the EU's external borders were written on paper planes launched by demonstrators. The uninvited guests, clad in white, shouted, "This Pact kills - vote no!” However, the outcry merely served as an intermezzo in an eight-year cacophonous quarrel, which reached its resolution on a knife-edge after the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, managed to restore order in the auditorium and supported the passing of the Pact's ten legislative texts - which were narrowly approved - while the names of the dead lay scattered upon the floor. With the formality of the Council's adoption of the Pact on the 14th of May, the reform is now completed, and the Commission will present an implementation plan in June.
Read MoreThere have been people on the move based in Calais since the late 1990s seeking to enter the UK via irregular routes. Methods to deter those based here have varied, from the destruction of the established living site known as ‘The Jungle’ in October 2016, to increased funding of the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) - the police force who are deployed for riot and crowd control and have a stronghold in Calais to police the beaches, employing brutal methods to prevent crossings like slashing boats and deploying tear gas. In April 2022, the Conservative Government announced the ‘Rwanda Policy’ - an immigration policy that could see those who had sought asylum via irregular routes at risk of being deported to Rwanda, to have their asylum case heard there and to resettle there as a refugee. This policy has caused significant distress to those who seek to cross, who have previously viewed the UK as a place of safety and that respects human rights.
Read MoreIn the weeks leading up to Bulgaria’s Schengen accession an episode of political and social unrest occurred with the championing of anti-migrant rhetoric and demonstrations on the streets of Sofia.
The protests came three days after a video a was published by the pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party, which falsely claimed to show migrants attacking a group of young Bulgarian citizens. Bulgaria’s political climate, dominated by right leaning and nationalist parties, was stirred by the release of the video which circulated widely on social media.
Read MoreOn the 31st of March, Bulgaria - alongside Romania - joined Schengen as a partial member by air & sea. The inclusion of land crossings for full accession of these countries was blocked by an Austrian veto over concerns(1) that it would lead to an increase in people wanting to claim asylum in the EU.
What is significant about Bulgaria becoming a Schengen member is that, what has been seen in the lead up, and what we will see following accession, is a new precedent of aggressively fortified borders set for the EU’s external Schengen borders. Which in turn may shape EU wide standards for border management.
Read MoreOn 18th March 2024, the Collective Aid WASH Centre in Calais received a notice from the city, forcing it into administrative closure. Within an hour, services stopped and service users left the centre with no clear answer on when the centre would be able to reopen. This closure has resulted in yet another barrier to sanitation services for people on the move, something that France was already criticised for by United Nations human rights experts in their 2018 Universal Periodic Review, who urged France to “increase efforts” to provide these services. Despite completing all required modifications to the WASH Centre, it is still closed with no confirmed date for reopening.
Read MoreDuring 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.
Read MoreSince the Special operation in Northern Serbia was conducted in October and November last year, the situation for people on the move has become increasingly more difficult and uncertain. As far as we can see, no informal settlements have reopened, the Reception Centre in Subotica remains closed, and only very few numbers of people are passing through the region.
The official line is clear, when our team was stopped recently by Serbian police and Frontex staff (German representatives) while conducting an assessment at a previous work site, they were asked “Why are you helping them, they [migrants] are coming here illegally?”
Read MoreOn January 30th, an advocacy team from Collective Aid met with three Afghan men, Amir, Ali and Basim, who described their attempt to cross the Serbia-Hungary border on the last day of 2023. They were with a group of six other men on the afternoon of December 31st when Hungarian police officers arrested them right after they crossed the border. The police illegally pushed them back over the border and brought them to Serbian police officers who were accompanied by Italian officers with the EU logo on their uniforms. After having talked to Amir, the only one of the group who spoke English, Serbian police officers started to beat him in front of everyone. The group was then forcefully put into a van and driven to a police station in Subotica where they stayed the whole night without any food or water. In the morning, police officers took them to court where they were forced to sign papers without being told what they were signing. A translator, who only spoke Turkish, told them that they would go to a refugee camp to rest for a few days.
Read MoreOne of the few Arabic signs in Northern Serbia greets you when you enter the Sencansko groblje (cemetery) in Subotica reads: “Forbidden to enter the cemetery and church.” In the corner of this cemetery sits two graves. At the front, the grave is marked “NN Migrant 2023”. At the back, it is marked “N. N. 2022”. These are just two of 1015 unmarked graves across Europe. In Subotica, two people on the move have met their untimely fate on their journey into the European Union. What we do not know of them; their names, families, friends, hopes, dreams, likes, dislikes, we can be sure that they were crossing Europe’s borders in search of safety. From Spain and Italy to Greece, France and Croatia, people on the move are met with the most lethal force of the EU’s border regime: death.
Life in Calais for people on the move is a near-constant battle against police harassment and violence, and the message from the French government has never been clearer; violence from the state is not only tolerated, it is rewarded. As temperatures dropped below zero in late November, France’s notorious riot police, the Compagnie Républicaine de Sécurité (CRS), and border police, the Police aux Frontières (PAF), geared up for an eviction more devastating than usual.
On the morning of October 20th, Khaled was jolted awake by loud shouts and screams from outside the dimly lit room he was sleeping in. The other men and boys sharing the room at the temporary living site near the Hungarian border began to get up to investigate the noise. Suddenly, the door was smashed open, revealing three masked men dressed all in black and brandishing batons.
Read MoreIn 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.”
Read MoreTucked away in the back corner of an informal living site in Northern Serbia, a time honored tradition takes place. A small barbershop has been set up under the shade of a tree, complete with a dedicated wooden seat and a small table where electric razors, scissors and small combs are carefully laid out. A group of men sit nearby, sipping sugary tea brought by Collective Aid volunteers and await their turn to be called for the next haircut slot.
Read MoreSeeking asylum is a universal human right. But for years, European countries have pursued harsh policies designed to deter people from exercising this right. Governments refuse the duty of search and rescue along dangerous sea routes. Detention of asylum seekers is common practice, often for long periods and in poor conditions. And people on the move face police aggression and constant pushbacks— measures to force refugees back across borders to avoid responsibility for their asylum claims.
Read MoreThe United Nations (UN) is an international organisation consisting of states from across the world. At the UN, member states discuss, negotiate, and pledge action on issues like climate change, peace, and human rights. Guaranteeing the implementation of these commitments, however, proves tricky.
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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. Sayeed comes from Afghanistan, having fled after the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.
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In recent weeks, Collective Aid has witnessed regular taxi stop-and-searches. These often take place on the outskirts of Subotica on the way to the Serbian-Hungarian border and living sites. They even occur at the entrance of Subotica’s reception centre. We have received reports recently that people on the move are being stolen from taxis by the Serbian police conducting these stop-and-searches.
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“In camp, they feed us pork… do they not know we are Muslims?”
Ahmed*, a Moroccan in his early twenties, asked me this outside Collective Aid’s WASH centre in Belgrade. The centre is a unique spot in the city for people on the move, where we offer laundry services and hot showers for free to those passing through Serbia’s capital. It was not the first time I was asked a question like this, nor was it the first time I was stumped for an answer.
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In the months of April and May, Collective Aid saw 28 reported evictions in the region. However, since June, there has been an increase in violent evictions across the northern Serbian border, which leads to personal property being destroyed and psychologically and physically harming people on the move.
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