[caption id=\"attachment_22444\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"] Under a tent behind a deserted brick factory in Subotica,\u00a0the last Serbian city before the border with Hungary,\u00a0Afghans and Iraqis shelter from the rain and cold. Subotica is the last stop on\u00a0an increasingly\u00a0well-trodden\u00a0route into the European Union for undocumented migrants and asylum-seekers. The brick factory\u00a0is a place to rest while they\u00a0wait\u00a0for the right time to cross.<\/p>\n \u00ab\u00a0We wanted to pass last night, but it was raining and my mother was tired,\u00a0\u00bb says Amal, a 19-year-old Afghan.<\/p>\n They\u00a0arrived in Subotica after a 5,000-kilometre journey through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Bulgaria, carrying their few belongings in plastic bags.<\/p>\n A few hundred metres away, a mobile clinic\u00a0run by M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res\u00a0(MSF) dispenses health care to another group of Afghans.<\/p>\n Last year in 2014, the numbers of migrants using the Western Balkan route into the EU reached unprecedented levels.\u00a0According to Europe\u2019s border agency, Frontex,\u00a0the Serbian-Hungarian frontier has become the third most popular route into the EU for irregular migrants and asylum-seekers, after Greece and Italy.<\/p>\n [caption id=\"attachment_22445\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"] Every day, hundreds of people from Syria, Afghanistan and even Somalia arrive in Belgrade, the capital of ex-Yugoslavia, before heading north to Subotica.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Balkans have always been [on the] migration road, at a crossroads of civilizations,\u201d says St\u00e9phane Moissaing, MSF\u2019s coordinator in Serbia. \u201cWhat is new is Serbia\u2019s status in the process of its accession to the EU. They have to respect the European rules about asylum and migratory flows.\u201d<\/p>\n A report\u00a0released today<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Incidents of abuse were particularly common in or near Subotica where the migrants reported that police stopped them and forced them to hand over their money and mobile phones under the threat of violence or\u00a0deportation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe said we didn\u2019t have money. Then one of them searched all our pockets and said, \u2018We will deport you back to Afghanistan. You have to pay. It is the policy of our country.\u2019\u201d \u2014 Younes, asylum-seeker interviewed by HRW<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Under EU pressure, the Serbian government 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 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.<\/p>\n [caption id=\"attachment_22446\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"] 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 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 forest.\u201d \u2014 Vasiliki Armeniakou, MSF medical coordinator<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Serbia learned the word \u201crefugee\u201d during the war that devastated the Balkans in the 1990s. In\u00a0the Krnjaca Centre for Asylum Seekers\u00a0in a suburb of Belgrade, Syrians, Afghans and Somalis are accommodated alongside displaced Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia who arrived there 20 years ago.<\/p>\n [caption id=\"attachment_22447\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"750\"] Currently, there are five centres for asylum-seekers across the country, which together can accommodate up to 780 people. Others are set to open in the coming months, but the rapid increase in migrant numbers has stretched capacity.<\/p>\n At a centre in Bogovadja, one hour outside Belgrade, about 30 African migrants are sleeping outside in the cold when IRIN visits.\u00a0Sitting around a fire on dirty blankets, they express their frustration.<\/p>\n \u201cThey told us as a priority, they are taking women, children, couples. However, we know there are empty rooms,\u201d \u2014 Jacques, a 28-year-old from Cameroon<\/p><\/blockquote>\n [caption id=\"attachment_22448\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"] Part of the problem is the overly bureaucratic procedure for accessing an asylum centre.<\/p>\n \u00ab\u00a0You have to ask\u00a0the police for an intention of asylum request,\u00a0\u00bb says\u00a0Moissaing, which\u00a0often takes two or more days to process.<\/p>\n According to the HRW report, police sometimes refuse to register asylum claims making it impossible for those individuals to access food and shelter, never mind the asylum system. Researchers also found many migrants living outside the centres, including families with small children and unaccompanied minors.<\/p>\n \u201cIf 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,\u201d \u2014 Emina \u0106erimovi\u0107, HRW researcher<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 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 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.\u00a0A 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 porous border with Hungary<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"](\"http:\/\/asile.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/static1.squarespace.com_-300x200.jpg\")
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Afghan refugees sit under a plastic shelter in Subotica eating sandwiches donated by a local man.[\/caption]<\/p>\n![\"](\"http:\/\/asile.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Campi_Serbia_2-300x200.jpg\")
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A group of Afghan and Pakistani asylum-seekers who have just arrived from Macedonia rest in a park in the centre of Subotica.[\/caption]<\/p>\n![\"Campi_Serbia_3\"](\"http:\/\/asile.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Campi_Serbia_3-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a> Mattresses and an abandoned fire mark the spot where migrants have been sleeping on the first floor of the old brick factory in Subotica.[\/caption]<\/p>\n![\"Milan](\"http:\/\/asile.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Campi_Serbia_4.jpg\")
<\/a> Milan and Dusanka are refugees of the Bosnian war. They lived in Knin, now Croatia. They left their city because of the ethnic cleansing. They were teachers and live in the Krnjaca camp since 1995.[\/caption]<\/p>\n![\"Campi_Serbia_5\"](\"http:\/\/asile.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Campi_Serbia_5-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a> West African migrants camp outside the Bogovadja Centre for Asylum seekers.[\/caption]<\/p>\n
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