Migrants complain about accommodation in Obrenovac barracks

Belgrade, January 19– In the barracks in Obrenovac, 225 places are filled, which is the limit of the facility in which journalists’ teams are forbidden to enter. Three young boys from Pakistan found out that there was no more room in the Obrenovac barracks the hard way. From police administration, they were first sent to the shelter in Krnjaca, where they had then been sent back to Obrenovac, again due to overcrowding capacities. They were left with, as they say, just enough money to take a taxi back to Belgrade.

Those who had more luck, at least from the barracks in Obrenovac, agreed to speak to the cameras. The were given refuge and new clothes were given, but not, refuge from the cold winter.

“Conditions are good, but we are cold, we got one thing but we do not have enough. There are about 40 people in one room and we do not even have showers.” Food is also a problem” says one migrant from Afghanistan.

He adds that they have only cold water. Electricity, he says, they have but there is no heating.

However, we were not able to make this on our own. The barracks ca not be upheld without the Ministry of Defense, for which can be waited for up to several days, but it is not certain certain that the Ministry will issue a license at all. We tried to get footage at least from the outside, however they did not allow us to.

Entry is not available into the facility until migrants go through medical examinations – they explain in the Commissariat for Refugees. They believe that improvement of conditions in the barracks is ongoing.

“Obrenovac is in the phase of renovation and there will still be accommodation capacities, but there are places. There are places in Presevo, there is room in Divljana, there is room in Pirot, so there is no claim that there is no place, ” says Ivan Miskovic from the Commissariat for Refugees.

And further strategy, the Commissariat said, would be an attempt to turn migrants away from Belgrade camps, in the south of the country, although they themselves acknowledge that it will be a difficult job.