Info Park
Weekly 6 – 12 May 2020
Serbia
➢ Following the global trend of relaxing COVID-19 prevention measures, Serbian Parliament annulled the 53-days long state of emergency on May 6. The “New normal” came into force for citizens on May 7 following the publishing in the Official Gazette, however it does not applied for the refugee and migrant population in Serbia. They remained locked in 20 camps as, on the same day, Minister of Health Zlatibor Lončar passed the “Order on restriction of movement at access to open spaces, reception centers for migrants and asylum centers”. The order states that “the beneficiaries of reception and asylum centers for migrants shall be prohibited to leave
the centers. Exceptionally and in justified cases (visit to doctor, etc.), the migrants shall be allowed to leave the ACs and RCs with special and time-limited approval of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration”. Because of the measures, Serbian army corps (that kept the camps sealed during the state of emergency) withdrew, but
the police forces including gendarmerie came in instead, keeping the centers locked.
➢ The above decision was universally and widely criticized by numerous NGOs & INGOs, both publicly and unofficially, accusing Serbian authorities of expanding the scope of migrants’ discrimination already severely present during the emergency
state. Initiative A11 and Belgrade Center for Human Rights both submitted appeals to the Constitutional Court calling for the annulation of the decree and momentary unlock of the refugee and migrant population.
➢ For many observers, the extension of migrants’ centers lockdown came as the State’s attempt to prevent thousands who are expected to leave the centers in a bid to reach Belgrade or North-West borders as soon as possible, but also to prevent incidents with radicalized anti-migrant groups now openly and freely calling for violence.
However, the situation in many camps was described as “peaceful but tense”. As of May 9, SCRM staff in some of the government-run shelters started letting those accommodated in them leave the premises with a special permission, however some first runaways are also noted, both individual and in smaller groups. Apart from
that, Serbia’s RCs and ACs did not see much change following the relaxation of measures. Most of them remain overcrowded accommodating around 9,000 asylum seekers and other migrants, including 1,179 children (617 unaccompanied boys)
under inadequate guardianship. During last week, Subotica RC was restored under the SCRM management and currently serves 209 single men, including those who are pushed back from the borders. The number of pushbacks from Hungary jumped to 48 for one-week time, ranging from 3 to 12 per day compared to previous weeks
when there were no recorded attempts to cross the Hungarian border
➢ The culmination of migrant-scapegoating in Serbia occurred last week with an incident in Obrenovac RC when a local man broke into the camp with his car. During the outburst of ethnic hate and islamophobia, the perpetrator filmed himself live on You Tube in a manner of New Zealand mosque mass killer Brenton Tarrant. He was
detained for 48 hours and released with a mild charge. An employee of the city Info Park Weekly 06-12 May 2020 3
council, he is close to the ruling party, currently a member of an extremist movement “Levijatan”. He stated he was inspired by fake news coming from Facebook group called “Stop the settling of migrants” mostly posting fake or outdated news.
Moreover, over the weekend, another extremist groups lead by “People’s patrols”
protested in Belgrade downtown against migrant “invasion”, vaccination, and 5G
network under the slogan “We won’t give away Serbia” (Ne damo Srbiju). Last but not least, other right wing groups lead by “Levijatan” are scheduled to hold an antimigrant rally at the gates of Obrenovac RC on Wednesday May 13. Numerous, nonrestricted extremists’ events in Serbia can only be understood as an acceleration of
right-wing campaign for general elections set for June 21
Croatia
➢ Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Croatian border police continued with illegal expulsion of asylum seekers from the Croatian territory. This well-coordinated practice reached new, unprecedented proportions last week. Namely, according to the latest testimonies and photos, the police have been humiliating people by physically marking them with an orange cross sprayed all over their heads.
Greece
➢ Border Violence Monitoring Network, BVMN, has released firsthand testimony and photographic evidence indicating the existence of violent collective expulsions of migrants including robbery, beatings with the use of batons and tasers, and stripping of clothes. Within six weeks the network has collected reports of 194 people removed
and pushed back into Turkey from the camp in Diavata and the Drama Paranesti preremoval detention center.
➢ The Greek government continued denying the claims coming from the German paper Der Spiegel according to which a Pakistani national had been shot dead, possibly by Greek soldiers, while attempting to cross from Turkey into Greece two months ago.
#Covid-19 #Migration #Migrant #Balkans #Serbie #Croatie #Grèce #Déconfinement #Xénophobie #Refoulement #Violence #Expulsions