Source: RTS

BELGRADE, August 26 – Rados Djurovic from Asylum Protection Center spoke with RTS that this year marked the news that a significant number of migrants circumvent Serbia’s reception centers and that there are currently about 2,000 of them outside of the centers. He points out that the migrants are definitely orientating themselves toward BiH and Croatia. (English version below)

According to the data of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, around 3,200 migrants are temporarily living in our country, and Rados Djurovic states that at least 30 to 40 people enter the country daily and mainly entering from the direction of Macedonia and Bulgaria.

“Approximately 2,000 people are outside of the centers systems and this is new for this year, marking that this year refugees are not going as they did before to reception centers, but rather that a significant number of them are bypassing them, with the intention of reaching Western Europe” , Djurovic pointed out on RTS Dnevnik.

He emphasized that the migration orientation is definitely towards BiH and Croatia.

“People gravitate towards these parts of our country, so reception centers in this part of Serbia are full – more than 900 people are in the center in Obrenovac, as well as in the center of Banja Koviljaca and the center in Adasevci where a large number of migrants are located,” says Djurovic

“These are all centers filled with people who, due to these trends, try to get to Western Europe most often through BiH and Croatia,” added Djurovic.

In asking if the new Balkan route is through BiH, Djurovic explains that Bosnia was opened as a route only because of the extremely difficult treatment of migrants on the Serbian-Hungarian border.

“You have the latest knowledge from the field that people are denied food in the centers in Hungary and that they are being pushed back to Serbia illegally and that it is a practice that unfortunately also  exists with Croatia. Faced with the lack of alternative, people, they have chosen BiH through help of smugglers massive go there, “Djurovic pointed out.

“This is just a current situation, but it points to Serbia’s position on this route, which is the mainland route, the main route from Turkey, and Serbia is one of the stations, simply an inevitable station on the way of migrants, and most of them pass through Serbia for now they mostly manage to pass, “explained Djurovic.

He thinks that solidarity in Europe still does not exist, but it is also clear that just all countries look at the problem of migrants exterminating and solving it beyond the EU’s borders.

“In this respect, we expect that in September concrete plans for resolving issues outside the EU will come out,” Djurovic added.

When it comes to the EU, he stressed that there are individual countries that are trying to close the borders for refugees – Italy, Hungary, Poland, Austria …

“This points to major problems within the EU, but also on a new tendency that general understanding prevails that the problem should be resolved outside the territory of the EU, and then it has a lot of influence in the Balkans,” Djurovic said.

He pointed out that migration is a persuasive process and that statistical data proves that there are a large number of people on the move.

“Migration will not bypass us precisely because we as Serbia are on a route that is landed to the EU and as the last station on this road we can not expect the problem to be solved,” concluded Djurović.