Der Nachmittag ist drückend. Hinter den letzten Häusern des Dorfs liegen drei Männer unter einem Baum im Schatten. Sie dösen. Einige Meter hinter ihnen fließt träge die Korana. Sie ist weder breit noch tief. Auch einen Zaun gibt es nicht. Nur, dass auf der anderen Seite der Uferstreifen gerodet ist, fällt auf. Die Männer ruhen sich aus. Ihre Kräfte werden sie noch brauchen. In ein paar Stunden, wenn es dunkel ist, wollen sie über den Fluss hinüber, nach Kroatien.
Category Archives: Allgemein
FOURTH REPORT ON ILLEGAL PUSHBACKS OF REFUGEES FROM THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA IN THE PERIOD FROM JUNE 2017 TO FEBRUARY 2018
Croatian media report new ‘Balkan route’
Croatian media have reported the emergence of a new ‘Balkan route’ used by migrants to reach western Europe without passing through Macedonia and Serbia. Middle Eastern migrants have opened up a new ‘Balkan route’ in their attempt to find a better life in western Europe after the traditional route through Macedonia and Serbia was closed. This is according to a report by Zagreb newspaper Jutarnji list. From Greece, the new route takes them through Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia.
Gestrandet in der Ruine von Sid
15 Kilometer sind es von der Kleinstadt Sid bis zur kroatischen Grenze. Man lässt die leerstehenden Fabrikhallen am Bahnhof links liegen, kreuzt die Bahnschienen. Ist dann auf der Landstraße lange umgeben von winterbraunen Äckern und weitem Himmel. Läuft durch das Dorf Batrovci, wo die Zeit seit den Jugoslawien-Kriegen stehengeblieben scheint, vorbei an Häusern ohne Putz, Schuppen aus Plastikplanen und knorrigen Apfelbäumen. Schlägt sich nach der Brücke, unter der die Lkws in Schlangen auf die Grenzkontrollen warten, in den Wald. Durchquert ein paar Meter Gestrüpp. Wandert dann die letzten Kilometer zwischen Buchen, das Licht scheint jetzt im Winter auch an grauen Tagen milchig-hell durch die blattlosen Äste.
Über gute Geschäfte mit Flüchtlingen in Gevgelija „Manche sind richtig reich geworden“
Während der großen Flüchtlingsbewegung, war der kleine mazedonische Grenzort Gevgelija ein Brennpunkt. Heute ist es hier wieder ruhig, doch das Thema beschäftigt die Bewohner weiter. Auch Giorgij Kostadinov hat viele Erinnerungen. Wer mit ihm reden möchte, der muss sich erst einmal bücken. Der schwarzhaarige Mazedonier ist Kioskverkäufer und sitzt hinter einem kleinen, rechteckigen Fenster.
CRIMINALIZING HUMANITARIAN AID
The refugees in Serbia are desperate, they have been way too many months, some of them even more than a year living in camps, with no rights, no papers and no options of being free citizens. They are in a limbo in Serbia, the European borders are closed and they get no response to their asylum demands. On December 25th, they hung on to one of those dreams that all humans need to believe. That day, refugees coming from the whole Serbia decided to start a peaceful protest in the border with Tovarnik, the Croatian border. There was the rumor among them that during Christmas, since these are the days of peace, love and hope, the EU would open the borders again. That would have been a step closer for them to be free citizens. One may think this is an utopia, but in desperate situations, people tend to believe in miracles.
Serbia extradites Kurdish activist to Turkey despite U.N. warning
Serbia has extradited to Turkey a Kurdish political activist who had been seeking asylum, a police official said on Tuesday, defying a recommendation by the United Nations’ Committee against Torture. Cevdet Ayaz requested asylum in Serbia earlier this year after fleeing Turkey, where he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison over alleged activities against the constitution, the Belgrade-based N1 TV quoted his lawyer Ana Trkulja as saying.
Refugees Demand to be Allowed Into Croatia
Dozens of refugees are protesting near the border between Serbia and Croatia, demanding that Croatia let them in – while Serbia’s refugee commissariat had said it fears they have been ‘manipulated’ by NGOs.
BORDER VIOLENCE MONITORING
This website documents illegal push-backs and police violence inflicted by EU member state authorities, mainly on the borders of Serbia/Croatia and Serbia/Hungary. The quotes and pictures below are just a few examples from a growing database of testimonies and reports collected by independent volunteers starting in 2016. Through systematic documentation, it aims to render visible the equally systematic and planned character of this violence. Day by day, basic human rights are being violated on the margins of the EU. In solidarity with the people suffering these abuses, we aim to bring their often forgotten stories to public attention and demand that these practices stop immediately.
‘They treated her like a dog’: tragedy of the six-year-old killed at Croatian border
When the train hit six-year-old Madina Hussiny, her family stumbled to the watching Croatian border police begging for help, her body limp in their arms. The same officers had ordered the exhausted Afghan family down railway tracks towards Serbia in the dark without warning them there might still be trains running, said Madina’s mother, Muslima Hussiny. But desperate and terrified, they had nowhere else to turn. Madina was a casualty of a slow-burning crisis along Europe’s borders that aid groups and activists say is causing untold suffering.