Refugees Set up Camp in Belgrade Park

Описание: A park in the middle of the Serbian capital Belgrade now is home to thousands of refugees trying to get into Europe.

Locals have started calling the park “tent city” as it has been taken over by thousands of refugees who passing through Belgrade on their way to Europe.

"You know, there are a lot of problems in our country Afghanistan. Two months ago I came, by foot, through mountain and forest and rain, day and night, we walked to reach here,” said Shewalli, an Afghan refugee.

Some refugees sleep in tents, but most are out in the open. The park’s water sources are being used for bathing.

The city and its residents are providing some amenities for the refugees, and some are able to look after themselves, but garbage continues to pile up.

Many of the people in the park are waiting to go to Hungary. Officials said some 10,000 people made the crossing last week alone.

But some are anxious about being registered in Hungary, a member of the European Union (EU).

Under the Dublin Convention, an EU law, refugees must seek asylum in the EU country where they were first registered, for most refugees in the park, this would be Hungary.

However, this is not where many want to settle. And if they continue to other EU states, they can be sent back to their country of asylum, Hungary.

"Other people who went ahead of us were told by Hungarian officials that if they didn’t give their fingerprints, they would be hit and thrown in jail. Now we are scared to go to Hungary,” said Lokman, a Syrian Kurdish refugee.

The dreadful news of 71 bodies found in the back of a truck in Austria hasn’t deterred Lokman and his family of eight. They are hoping to find a smuggler that will get them into Europe bypassing Hungary’s strict registration policy.

"You have to give fingerprints in Hungary, but many people have relatives in Switzerland and France. So if you give fingerprints in Hungary, it’ll be hard to go to these countries,” said Bassel, a Syrian refugee.

Roughly 2,000 people cross into Serbia from its southern border with Macedonia daily, which puts further strain on Serbia’s already struggling economy. Yet the Serbian people are resilient.

Vidic Dragan’s fast food kiosk has seen business more than double since the arrival of the refugees.

"We had so many wars, so somehow one feels for them, you know. As you see, they are peacefully sitting, sleeping, doing laundry, like they are at home, but they are not,” said Dragan.

Many Serbians are trying to make the refugees feel more at home.

"We all have a very difficult history and past here. We know very well what does it mean when you are displaced and when you have run away from your country and not able to get back there,” said Vesna Subotic, a Belgrade resident

Subotic and many like her volunteer at a donation center set up by the local community to assist refugees staying in the park.

Serbia gives refugees 72 hours to decide if they want to seek asylum there, or continue on into Europe. For many that’s a difficult decision.

So while the EU struggles to decide on a unified approach to this humanitarian crisis, Serbia could face the brunt of the delays as more people arrive and don't know what to do next.

Refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other nations continue to flow into Europe as the EU works on better coordinated efforts to deal with the worst refugee crisis since World War II.
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