Another 5,000 claims were registered in the first few months

On the migration road in Serbia IRIN

Last year in 2014, the numbers of migrants using the Western Balkan route into the EU reached unprecedented levels. According to Europe’s border agency, Frontex, the Serbian Hungarian frontier has canada goose outlet parka become the third most popular route into canada goose coats on sale the EU for irregular migrants and asylum seekers, after Greece and Italy.

Every day, hundreds of people from Syria, Afghanistan and even Somalia arrive in Belgrade, the capital of ex Yugoslavia, before heading north to Subotica.

“The Balkans have always been [on the] migration road, at canada goose outlet toronto factory canada goose coats a crossroads of civilizations,” says Stphane Moissaing, MSF’s coordinator in Serbia. “What is new is Serbia’s status in the process of its accession to the EU. They have to respect the European rules about asylum and migratory flows.”

A report released today by Human Rights Watch (HRW) finds that Serbia still has a long way to go in terms of complying with EU laws concerning the right to seek asylum and treatment of migrants.

Interviews with 81 asylum seekers and migrants between November 2014 and January 2015 revealed that many had experienced abuse, extortion and summary returns to Macedonia at the hands of Serbian police.

Incidents of abuse were particularly common canada goose outlet in or near Subotica where the migrants reported canada goose black friday sale that police stopped them and forced them canada goose outlet new york city to hand over their money and mobile phones under the threat of violence or https://www.outletcanadagoose.biz deportation.

said we didn’t have money. Then uk canada goose one of them searched all our pockets and said, ‘We will deport you back to Afghanistan. You have to pay. It is the policy of our country.'”

Younes, asylum seeker interviewed by HRW

Under canada goose outlet shop EU pressure, the Serbian government canada goose outlet began recognizing refugees in 2008, but its asylum system is still embryonic. It granted refugee status to just four out of 16,500 asylum seekers canada goose store canada goose outlet in usa in 2014. Another 5,000 claims were registered in the first few months of 2015. With only 70 employees and no translators, social workers or lawyers, the Commissariat of Refugees in Serbia, the government agency tasked with processing asylum applications, is struggling to cope with the rapid increase in the number of claims.

The capacity to provide transiting migrants and asylum seekers with even basic food and shelter is also limited. At the brick factory in Subotica, one group of Afghans say they have been sleeping on the cold, hard floor of the factory for the past week.

general, they are poorly clothed, living in unhygienic conditions, not able to bathe and very hungry. Many have muscle and bone injuries, and severe body aches, cuts, bruises and frostbite as a result of days of walking or running through the canada goose outlet online forest.”

Vasiliki Armeniakou, MSF medical coordinator

Serbia learned the word “refugee” during the war that devastated the Balkans in the 1990s. In the Krnjaca Centre for Asylum Seekers in a suburb of Belgrade, Syrians, Afghans and Somalis are accommodated alongside displaced Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia who arrived there 20 years ago.

Serbia truly aspires to join the EU it should put a stop to any police abuse and promptly investigate allegations of ill treatment by the police,”

Emina erimovi, HRW researcher

With an unemployment rate of nearly 22 percent, Serbia offers few opportunities for migrants and asylum seekers needing to eventually earn an income. Most view it as a official canada goose outlet short term transit point on their way to a final destination in northern Europe. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the average length of stay at the asylum centres is just 6.5 days. A three day temporary residence permit issued by the police used to be just long enough to cross the plains and marshes that mark Serbia’s canada goose outlet canada porous border with Hungary.

During a visit to the Hungarian side of the border early canada goose clearance one morning, many police cars are visible, some of them with captured migrants inside. canada goose outlet store The EU’s Dublin regulation means asylum seekers can be deported back to the first country where they are registered (and fingerprinted), but Hungary is not a popular final destination for most.

Rather than apply for asylum in Hungary and risk being returned there, most opt to be immediately returned to Serbia where they canada goose outlet reviews can make another attempt to cross the border canada goose uk shop undetected.

“We are collecting more and more testimonies about migrants who come back canadian goose jacket to Belgrade,” says Rados Djurovic, director of Asylum Protection Centre, one of the few organisations helping asylum seekers in Serbia.

Migrants are increasingly visible in the capital. In a park in front of the bus canada goose black friday sale station, several dozen wait for papers, smugglers, a bus, or a taxi. With the reinforcing of the Serbian Hungarian border, many may only get as far as Belgrade.