A refugee girl extracted from a wagon loaded with clay in which she had hidden in Bosnia - Border Violence Monitoring
They do not flee Covid, but from prison camps and repressive measures put in place under the pretext of protecting public health. They also flee the Visegrad axis, yesterday definitively condemned by the EU Court of Justice, which deemed the “walls” of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, deaf to the calls for redistribution of migrants, non-compliant. The Balkan route has never been easy for the homeless who cross it. The proof came from the Court of Luxembourg, called to decide on the choices of the three member countries found guilty of not accepting refugees from Italy and especially Greece, as established by the program launched in 2015. "Refusing to comply with the temporary mechanism for the relocation of applicants international protection “the Visegrad group has failed” to the obligations under the law of the Union ", wrote the judges.
«The Court has been crystal clear as regards the responsibility of the Member States. Now - announced the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen - we are taking action to draw up the pact on migration that we will present after Easter ».
It will not be easy to make progress. The EU’s plans will also have to deal with the “full powers” of the magyar Viktor Orbán and his emulators in the surrounding areas. The fear of coronavirus is justified, especially in countries that do not have an efficient health service. But the answers are contested by international humanitarian organizations, concerned about the widespread push for authoritarianism.
In Sarajevo, the police have been confining migrants for days to a detention center on the outskirts of the capital. They are blocked along the roads and carried by force. Similar roundiing up will be carried out in the Bihac area on the border with Croatia next week. "Forcing people, many of whom are already vulnerable, to stay in a tent city set up in a hurry in a remote area, without ensuring adequate supplies of water or sanitation and without guaranteeing spaces for self-isolation or access to medical treatment is an inhuman decision that will facilitate the risk of avoidable infections and deaths, "said Massimo Moratti, deputy director of research on Europe at Amnesty International. About 4,100 people are located in temporary reception centers managed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), another 3,000 live hidden in hovels and abandoned houses, on the street or in the woods.
There are those who risked dying buried under a pile of soil to escape the raids. Like the 5-year-old girl who hid in the mud heap of a railway wagon loaded with clay found in Harmica, Croatia. Bosnian agents pulled her out still alive just before the convoy set off, also saving the parents and two brothers. Not even the time to give him a drink and they were rejected in Serbia.
Romania remains the Balkan country with the highest number of infections. The last reported 2,460 cases, 252 recovered and 86 reported deaths. In Slovenia there are 841 known cases and at least a hundred of them are doctors and nurses. In North Macedonia there are 354 infections, with 11 deaths, and in Kosovo there are 112 cases, another 120 in Montenegro.
The abuses of the authorities are also aggravated by the fight against time to stop the infection. Border Violence Monitoring lawyers are documenting the treatment of refugees with testimonies and photographic evidence. In fact, the end of winter has reopened the way along the most impervious paths, previously covered with snow. Bruises all over the body, skin bursts, Taser burns, the electric shock gun supplied to agents in Greece and Macedonia. Precisely in Hellenic territory the collection camp in Ritsona, in the north of the country, was placed in quarantine for 14 days after coronavirus positivity cases were confirmed. In the grid there are 3 thousand people, largely willing to continue the crossing to North Macedonia or Albania. But Athens must deal especially with the more than 40 thousand refugees piled up on the islands, with the concern that a Covid-19 outbreak, given now for imminent, would be a catastrophe.