Witness to Serbia’s Growing Refugee Crisis

5 minute read

For weeks, thousands of refugees and migrants have faced freezing temperatures in Serbia. Since the European Union and Turkey signed a deal last year to restrict the number of refugees arriving by boat, many have been forced to make the trek through the Balkans to end up in Serbia, a non-European state that shares its borders with Croatia and Hungary.

Faced with a growing humanitarian crisis and criticism from Europe, Serbia says it has opened new camps to house the refugees. But the reality is more complex, says photographer Alessandro Penso, who’s documented the dire conditions refugees face on a daily basis. He talks to TIME LightBox.

Olivier Laurent: What’s happening on the ground?

Alessandro Penso: According to UNHCR figures [PDF], around 7,000 people are stuck in Serbia. At the moment, there are around 1,500 people living on the streets, most of whom are from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The alarming fact is that around 60% are unaccompanied minors. According to the government, around 150 people enter Serbia irregularly every day and half of them are minors. Some have tried to request asylum but have been refused, while others carry expulsion papers.
In autumn, with the temperatures dropping, migrants and refugees looked for places to shelter from the cold and ended up in old warehouses near the train station.

There, they do not receive any assistance. The government has prohibited all humanitarian organizations from helping them in any way. There is just a group of international volunteers, “Hot Food Idomeni,” that hands out a serve of hot soup a day, which, for many, is their only meal. So, they are left to fend for themselves out in the cold with makeshift heating. Entering these places is like going back in time. It’s like something from World War II: people amassed around fires kept alight by burning plastic and other toxic materials. The air is unbreathable and many have respiratory infections from the smoke.

What is happening is a political game, where Europe points its finger at Serbia for its management of refugees, UNHCR suggests not considering Serbia a safe country, Serbia replies that it doesn’t want to enact extreme measures like Europe has done, that it doesn’t want to use force to make people go to camps. Both sides seem to think they are doing better than the other.

But Serbia has a bad record, with the deportation of refugees to Macedonia and Bulgaria several times, so many people are afraid to go to the camps. The camps themselves, with one or two exceptions, offer nothing. And none offer the opportunity for any sort of integration with society.

The fact is that Serbia does not want, and cannot, so it says, take care of these people, so it wants to discourage them from staying, knowing that they want to reach Europe and are just passing through. The situation was created after Hungary started to tighten border controls and build a fence, so Serbia is doing everything it can – by doing nothing – so that the situation can continue to be someone else’s problem.

What do refugees want?

What the refugees want is simply to be able to continue their journey and to reach central Europe, now seen as the El Dorado, a place where it is possible to obtain proper documents, go to school, and start a new life. In the end, they want what we all want – a bit of peace.

How can the situation evolve, in your opinion?

It is difficult to say how the situation could evolve. What Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has done is interesting, setting up five tents without authorization a few days ago. This should shake the situation up a little bit, because on the one hand, the government needs to show it means business for those who have not respected the rules, while on the other, removing tents and “officially” leaving children and sick people out in the cold may force the government to provide a real alternative.
But the truth is that I am skeptical. People passing through are always treated with indifference, everywhere, and the tendency is to leave the problem to the next country, as has happened in years past. No country of transit has ever said, “Why don’t you stay here, we can take care of you so you don’t run any further risks.”

I believe we will see mass expulsions in the future, but I hope I am wrong. Probably, we will continue to leave traffickers to manage the situation – it’s big money for them – and soon the people will disappear from the spotlight again and we’ll stop talking about them again, until the next unsustainable situation presents itself.

Alessandro Penso is a freelance photographer based in Italy. Deeply committed to social issues, his work focuses on the immigration crisis in the Mediterranean Sea, and has been published in numerous international publications.

Alice Gabriner, who edited this photo essay, is TIME’s international photo editor.

Olivier Laurent is the editor of TIME LightBox. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @olivierclaurent

A group of unaccompanied minors form afghanistan , include a boy with disability, to keeps warm by starting a makeshift fire near the train station of Belgrade, Jan 15, 2017.
A group of unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan, including a disabled boy, keep warm by a fire near the train station of Belgrade, Serbia, Jan 15, 2017.Alessandro Penso
Abdul, 16, an unaccompanied minor from Afghanistan showers near a makeshift shelter in an abandoned warehouse  Belgrade.
Abdul, 16, an unaccompanied minor from Afghanistan showers near a makeshift shelter in an abandoned warehouse, Belgrade, Serbia, January 2017. Alessandro Penso
A 16 years old from Afganistan showers near a makeshift shelter in an abandoned warehouse on January 15, 2017 in Belgrade, Serbia. Weather conditions have been cold and harsh over the past few days.
A 16 year-old Afghani washes outside in the cold near a makeshift shelter in an abandoned warehouse, Jan. 15, 2017, Belgrade, Serbia. Alessandro Penso
Migrants stand in line  up for a food distributed by volunteers outside of derelict warehouses which they use as a makeshift shelter, in Belgrade on January 17, 2017, with temperatures just bellow zero Celsius overnight.
Migrants line up for food distributed by volunteers outside of derelict warehouses which are being used for shelter, Belgrade, Serbia, Jan. 17, 2017. Temperatures fell below 32F in the night.Alessandro Penso
Migrants stand in line  up for a food distributed by volunteers outside of derelict warehouses which they use as a makeshift shelter, in Belgrade on January 17, 2017, with temperatures just bellow zero Celsius overnight.
Migrants wait for food distributed by volunteers outside of derelict warehouses used for shelter, Belgrade, Serbia, Jan. 17, 2017. Alessandro Penso
Frozen clothes of migrants are living in abandoned buildings near the train station, in miserable conditions and facing freezing temperatures. Belgrade, Jan 15, 2017.
Clothes, frozen from the cold, are left on trees by migrants living in terrible conditions in abandoned buildings near the train station, Belgrade, Serbia, Jan 15, 2017.Alessandro Penso
A group of migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan tries to keep warm by starting a makeshift fire in abandoned warehouse in Belgrade, Jan. 14, 2017.More than a thousand refugees, mostly Afghans, live on the streets in central Belgrade, in miserable conditions and facing freezing temperatures, awaiting an opportunity to enter the European Union.
A group of migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan try to keep warm by a fire near an abandoned warehouse, Belgrade, Jan. 14, 2017. More than a thousand refugees, mostly Afghanis, live on the streets in central Belgrade. They live in terrible conditions and face freezing temperatures, while awaiting an opportunity to enter the European Union.Alessandro Penso
A group of unhacampaniend minors from Afghanistan tries to keep warm by starting a makeshift fire in abandoned warehouse in Belgrade, Jan. 14, 2017
A group of unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan try to keep warm near a fire in an abandoned warehouse, Belgrade, Serbia, Jan. 14, 2017.Alessandro Penso
Basit, 12, an unaccompanied minor from Pakistan living in an abandoned building near the train station in Belgrade. Basit started his jouney from Pakistan one year ago with a smuggler, but the smuggler decided to abandon him in Belgrade around seven months ago because it was impossible for the smuglgler  to cross the border with Hungary.
Basit, 12, an unaccompanied minor from Pakistan lives in an abandoned building near the train station in Belgrade, Serbia. Basit started his jouney from Pakistan one year ago with a smuggler. The smuggler abandoned him in Belgrade when it wasn't possible to cross the border into Hungary, January 2017. Alessandro Penso
Two unaccompanied minors from afghanistan stay warm inside an abandoned warehouse in Belgrade, Jan 13, 2017
Two unaccompanied minors from afghanistan stay warm inside an abandoned warehouse in Belgrade, Jan 13, 2017.Alessandro Penso
A group of unaccompanied minors inside an abandoned of Belgrado waiting the smugglers for leave this place and enter the EU.
A group of unaccompanied minors inside an abandoned building in Belgrade, Serbia, where they wait for smugglers to help them enter the EU.Alessandro Penso—Alessandro Penso
Sakar, 15, unaccompanied minors from pakistan tries to keep warm by starting a makeshift fire in an abandoned bulding in Belgrade. Serbia Jan, 15, 2017.
Sakar, 15, unaccompanied minors from Pakistan try to keep warm by starting a fire in an abandoned bulding in Belgrade, Serbia,Jan, 15, 2017.Alessandro Penso
Asmatullah , 14, an unaccompanied minor from Pakistan living in an abandoned building near the train station in Belgrade.
Asmatullah , 14, an unaccompanied minor from Pakistan lives in an abandoned building near the train station in Belgrade, Serbia, January 2017.Alessandro Penso
Handar, 14, an unaccompanied minor from Afghanistan living in an abandoned building near the train station in Belgrade. 
Handar, 14, an unaccompanied minor from Afghanistan lives in an abandoned building near the train station in Belgrade, Serbia, Jan. 2017.Alessandro Penso
An A group of unaccompanied minor from Afghanistan in the abandoned warehouse in Belgrade where he waiting the smugglers for reach Europe live. Jan 13, 2017
A group of unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan wait in an abandoned warehouse in Belgrade, Serbia. They hope smugglers will help them reach Europe, Jan 13, 2017.Alessandro Penso
unaccompanied minors wake up early in the morning in the abandoned warehouse in central Belgrade, Serbia.Paying thousands of euros to the smugglers is the only option for them to leave this place and enter the EU, but not even that guarantees them to achieve their goal.
Unaccompanied minors wake up early in the morning in an abandoned warehouse in central Belgrade, Serbia. They will have to pay thousands of euros to smugglers help them leave and enter the European Union, Jan. 2017. Alessandro Penso
Unaccompanied minors from Pakistan in the abandoned warehouse in central Belgrade, Serbia.Paying thousands of euros to the smugglers is the only option for them to leave this place and enter the EU, but not even that guarantees them to achieve their goal.
Unaccompanied minors from Pakistan live in an abandoned warehouse in central Belgrade, Serbia, January 2017. The only way for them to leave Belgrade and make their way into the European Union is to pay thousands of dollars to smugglers. Though many are stopped at the border and sent back. Alessandro Penso
Migrants eat hot meals received from volunteers, outside of derelict warehouses which they use as a makeshift shelter in Belgrade on Jan 17, 2017.
Migrants eat hot meals received from volunteers, outside of a derelict warehouse which they use as a makeshift shelter, Belgrade, Serbia, Jan 17, 2017.Alessandro Penso
A 17 years old from Afghanistan brush his teeth near the train station of Belgrade where he live with a group of migrant from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A 17-year Afghani brushes his teeth near the train station of Belgrade, Serbia, where he lives with a group of migrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan, January 2017.Alessandro Penso

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