tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/balkan-route-31345/articlesBalkan route – The Conversation2017-10-02T12:36:40Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/829272017-10-02T12:36:40Z2017-10-02T12:36:40ZAs Europe’s focus shifts to integration, the humanitarian refugee crisis is still not over<p>Hellinikon Olympic Park looks like yet another derelict and forgotten space – sad but unsurprising, given how often Olympic venues <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2017/feb/10/rios-olympic-venues-six-months-on-in-pictures">fall</a> into disrepair and abandonment. But this baseball stadium on the outskirts of Athens is the site of a very different story. </p>
<p>In 2015, the abandoned park – which had been built on the site of an old airport – was <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-greece-migrants-stadium-20151112-story.html">repurposed</a> to house refugees entering Athens along with a number of other sites in the Greek capital. When a team of reporters from the podcast This American Life <a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/greece/#baseball-stadium">visited</a> in June 2015, 1,000 people lived in 150 tents within the outfield, unprotected from the summer heat, waiting for the next stage of their journey. </p>
<p>By the time we visited two years later in July 2017, the site had been abandoned – and cleaned up – once more. The only sign of the people that had lived there until recently <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ACEIRAesthetics/videos/1452520738168802/">was the graffiti</a> we found throughout the adjacent Ellinkiko neighbourhood, and the vast and abandoned Olympic Park. </p>
<p>These abandoned spaces can suggest that the humanitarian crisis of two years ago is over, or that refugees no longer require emergency accommodation in hastily repurposed sites. </p>
<p>We spent <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ACEIRAesthetics/">time</a> doing <a href="http://www.aston.ac.uk/lss/research/research-centres/aston-centre-europe/research-areas/projects-grants/ir-and-aesthetics/">research</a> along the Balkan route that many refugees and migrants took into Europe, visiting Belgrade, Thessaloniki and Athens. We spoke to a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in both Serbia and Greece who told us that, from a humanitarian perspective, “the crisis is over”. </p>
<p>Funders, including the EU and the UNHCR have suggested to these NGOs that the focus now needs to be on “integration” rather than emergency aid. And recent changes to how EU funding in Greece is to be distributed is likely to shift <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/refugees-latest-greek-islands-government-unhcr-humanitarian-crisis-fears-a7747656.html">the focus</a> towards more state-led solutions and services rather than being driven by on-the-ground needs. </p>
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<p>As such, many of these NGOs recently began putting their time and efforts into activities focused on integrating refugees into the community. These include language lessons, help with CVs and job applications, and help with housing for those awaiting relocation decisions.</p>
<h2>Still living at crisis point</h2>
<p>While each of these projects is important and valuable, our research along the Balkan route showed us that, contrary to the image invoked by the abandoned camp and the change in focus implied by donors, the humanitarian crisis is by no means over. While the number of people arriving in Europe <a href="http://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean">has fallen</a> since 2015, those stuck in transit states like Greece and Serbia often feel that they are living in crisis-like conditions. </p>
<p>We spoke to one NGO in Thessaloniki that provided showers for refugees who were living outside of formal camps or accommodation within the city. They told us that, during the 2016-17 winter period, there was a waiting list of ten days for shower usage, let alone the waiting list for other basic provisions such as laundry. In Thessaloniki we also visited a refugee support centre that had recently hosted a wedding reception. The couple had originally been married in Syria but were subsequently separated as the husband took refuge in Germany and the wife in Greece. The reception was a multicultural gathering of friends, sharing the experience of being refugees, and support workers from the centre. Close family members skyped into the reception. People are finding ways to have normal lives but these are not real alternatives to being surrounded by their families.</p>
<p>In the Serbian border town of Sid, an activist group called No Name Kitchen, cooks 150 meals twice a day for refugees living in the local park with no shelter or facilities. In Belgrade, according to a local NGO, refugees are taking more risks than a year ago. Families with small children now try to cross the border with smugglers, and if their attempts are unsuccessful, they often sleep in local parks and try again the next day. The crisis has shifted: some refugees still have no accommodation or basic sanitation, while for others the inability to leave Serbia or Greece is creating situations of hopelessness and frustration. </p>
<h2>Stuck in limbo</h2>
<p>In Athens, we visited squats which housed local homeless people, anarchists and refugees. Volunteers helping there were often locals who had lost jobs during the financial crisis. The squats are often seen as <a href="https://theconversation.com/welcome-to-city-plaza-athens-a-new-approach-to-housing-refugees-63904">an alternative</a> to refugee camps where refugees and activists make decisions in assemblies and run the buildings themselves. But the crisis is still evident in the constant threats faced by the residents, from <a href="http://www.ekathimerini.com/211886/article/ekathimerini/news/unknown-rightwing-group-claims-attack-on-refugee-squat">far-right attacks</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/23/refugee-squat-city-plaza-greece-best-worst-humanity">evictions</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/named-and-shamed-eu-countries-are-failing-to-share-responsibility-for-refugees-80918">Named and shamed: EU countries are failing to share responsibility for refugees</a>
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<p>While the humanitarian crisis affecting Europe’s new arrivals is less visible than it was in 2015, it still exists. It has shifted from an emergency situation to a crisis where people are feeling increasingly hopeless about their ability to move on from transit countries. </p>
<p>Only 24,449 refugees out of an initial 160,000 <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/525c5779-f268-3e54-acc7-233bb0cffdf2">have been relocated</a> from Italy and Greece. Those that remain <a href="http://www.msf.org/en/article/serbia-msf-denounces-widespread-violence-migrants-and-refugees-serbianhungarian-border">often live</a> in precarious conditions, facing violence, uncertainty about their status or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/25/eu-states-begin-returning-refugees-to-greece-as-german-reunions-slow">unable to reunify</a> with their family. For many of these people, the crisis is far from over.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82927/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Along the Balkan route, refugees and migrants are still in need of emergency aid.Gemma Bird, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of LiverpoolAmanda Russell Beattie, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Fellow The Aston Centre for Europe, Aston UniversityJelena Obradovic-Wochnik, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations & Deputy Director Aston Centre for Europe, Aston UniversityPatrycja Rozbicka, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/816272017-08-15T14:01:17Z2017-08-15T14:01:17ZHeroin trafficking through South Africa: why here and why now?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181408/original/file-20170808-22982-1by1v5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An addict prepares heroin in Lamu on the east coast of Kenya.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Goran Tomasevic</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A series of large <a href="http://mobserver.co.za/69733/middelburg-situated-popular-drug-route/">heroin seizures</a> have been made in South Africa since 2016, but the country is just one of the pitstops on Africa’s heroin highway.</p>
<p>The African continent is geographically situated between opium production and consumer states. </p>
<p>Heroin reaches South Africa via the <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-06-21-from-afghanistan-to-africa-heroin-trafficking-in-east-africa-and-the-indian-ocean/#.WYHGVYTfqUk">southern heroin trafficking route</a> originating in Afghanistan, where the overwhelming majority of global opium is <a href="https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/drug-trafficking/index.html">produced</a>. </p>
<p>The route goes through Pakistan and Iran to their coastlines, known as the Makran Coast. From there, the drug is loaded onto dhows which cross the Indian Ocean to transit states in either Africa or Asia, from where it is rerouted to its final destinations, mostly in Europe. The second phase of the journey can be by sea, land or air. </p>
<p>The dhows are large vessels often used for fishing explorations and able to undertake long journeys.</p>
<p>To avoid detection, the dhows either dock at island ports or remain out at sea. The heroin is then collected by smaller boats and taken ashore. The East and Southern African coastline has many inconspicuous islands to serve this purpose, which was also one of the factors luring cocaine traffickers to the cocaine plagued country of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/09/drugstrade">Guinea Bissau</a>.</p>
<p>The coastline from Kenya to South Africa is long, with porous borders, weak maritime surveillance, weak law enforcement capacity and corrupt officials willing to turn a blind eye. There is also a large diaspora connecting different regions to East and Southern Africa. </p>
<p>These factors attract traffickers and mean that managing the heroin trade in South Africa is fraught with challenges. Chief among them is the transnational nature of the heroin trade, the likely increase in local heroin use and the ability of the networks who run the trade to outsmart and outperform regional law enforcement entities and their limited resources.</p>
<h2>Changing circumstances, changing routes</h2>
<p>There are three primary heroin trafficking routes out of Afghanistan; the Balkan Route, the northern route and the southern route. The <a href="http://www.adriaticinstitute.org/?action=article&id=32">Balkan route</a>, stretching overland from Afghanistan to the Balkan countries and Western Europe, has experienced the bulk of heroin trafficking. </p>
<p>Research shows that <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21639560-east-african-states-are-being-undermined-heroin-smuggling-smack-track">law enforcement</a> efforts as well as conflicts have pushed some of the trade away from the Balkan route to the southern route and maritime trafficking, where law enforcement is mostly absent. Despite an increase in the southern route’s popularity with traffickers, it remains the least used of the three. </p>
<p>In 2010, a surge in large maritime heroin seizures in East Africa first highlighted Africa’s role in the southern route, especially the use of Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar as <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-06-21-from-afghanistan-to-africa-heroin-trafficking-in-east-africa-and-the-indian-ocean/#.WYHGVYTfqUk">transit zones</a>. </p>
<p>In 2014, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australian-warship-seizes-a-tonne-of-heroin-worth-159-million-in-record-drug-bust-9291302.html">1,032 kg</a> of heroin was seized from a dhow off Mombasa. It was the largest ever seizure of the drug outside of Afghanistan and its neighbouring countries. </p>
<p>As seizures have continued, international attention and law enforcement efforts in and around East Africa have increased. This is probably what caused traffickers to increasingly turn to landing points in Southern Africa. </p>
<p>South Africa is attractive for other reasons too. Drug traffickers are able to exploit the country’s efficient financial and transport infrastructure.</p>
<h2>Indian Ocean heroin trafficking</h2>
<p>Law enforcement on the southern route is mainly concerned with disrupting maritime heroin shipments before they reach the shore. The biggest law enforcement effort has come from the <a href="https://combinedmaritimeforces.com/ctf-150-maritime-security/">Combined Maritime Forces Combined Task Force 150</a>. </p>
<p>It is a fleet of 31 international navies mandated to patrol the Western Indian Ocean to disrupt terrorist activities and financing. This includes disrupting heroin trafficking on the high seas. Between 2013 and 2016 the force seized <a href="https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2016/November/indian-ocean_-colombo-declaration-adopted-to-coordinate-anti-drugs-efforts.html">9.3 tons</a> of heroin. </p>
<p>The task force patrols a vast <a href="https://combinedmaritimeforces.com/ctf-150-maritime-security/">area</a> – 2.5 million square miles across the high seas, extending as far as Mozambique. South Africa must, therefore, rely on its own navy and intelligence to detect shipments that outwit the Combined Task Force. </p>
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<span class="caption">A heroin trafficking dhow seized in Tanzanian waters, docked in Dar es Salaam next to the ferry to Zanzibar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carina Bruwer</span></span>
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<p>But the biggest obstacle to exposing the criminal networks running the southern route has been the Combined Task Force’s lack of jurisdiction to arrest heroin trafficking crews in international waters. This has resulted in the practice of the Combined Task Force throwing the heroin overboard and setting the crew and their vessel free. </p>
<p>If heroin can be seized in territorial waters, the national laws of the country apply and prosecutions can follow. </p>
<h2>Land based seizures in South Africa</h2>
<p>It is likely that dhows are only dropping off heroin as far as Mozambique because they would attract suspicion if they travelled as far as South Africa. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/tocta/TOCTA_Report_2010_low_res.pdf">Land based seizures</a> in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique have shown that heroin is broken up when it reaches the shore and then transported onward by road. This explains the seizure of smaller amounts of heroin being transported in cars and trucks from Mozambique to South Africa. </p>
<p>A recent heroin seizure in Overberg in the coastal province of the Western Cape has provided new insights into what researchers and law enforcement have only been able to speculate - that southern route heroin is also being transported to and from East and Southern Africa in containers. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/world/asia/sri-lanka-seizes-550-pounds-of-heroin.html">Containerised heroin seizures</a> have been made elsewhere along the southern route.</p>
<p>The heroin was found on a wine farm, hidden among boxes of wine intended for container shipment to <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2017-07-08-r292m-heroin-plot-collapsed-under-weight-of-cape-wine/">Europe</a>. This finally offers a more concrete link to container trafficking on the southern route, which would be harder to detect than dhows. </p>
<p>But lots of questions remain unanswered. These include: where did the shipment come from? Was it a single large shipment which entered at a harbour or smaller shipments that were consolidated on the wine farm? If so, which overland route was used? Was corruption involved? Is local heroin use increasing due to increased trafficking through the region? </p>
<h2>What needs to happen?</h2>
<p>Rooting out corruption and minimising the pool of potential small scale traffickers could be a good place to start. But the problem is much bigger than South Africa and encompasses many elements that increased law enforcement can’t address. One factor, for example, is increased local heroin consumption.</p>
<p>To understand, and respond to heroin trafficking networks there needs to be a coordinated effort that brings together production, transit and consumer states.</p>
<p>In the meantime, South Africa needs to increase its vigilance in local ports and along borders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81627/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carina Bruwer receives funding from the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime and the Social Science Research Council. </span></em></p>South Africa is only one piece in a larger puzzle of the heroin trade along the continents east coast.Carina Bruwer, PhD candidate, Institute for Safety Governance and Criminology, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/804352017-07-07T05:14:36Z2017-07-07T05:14:36ZHas the EU really solved its refugee crisis?<p>Less than two years after the European Union was confronted with an unprecedented influx of refugees, <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/news/latest/2015/12/5683d0b56/million-sea-arrivals-reach-europe-2015">during which over a million</a> people from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond flooded Europe’s borders, EU officials are saying that the <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/18/europe-wishes-to-inform-you-that-the-refugee-crisis-is-over/">migrant crisis is under control</a>.</p>
<p>For this, the EU credits its March 2016 <a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/03/18-eu-turkey-statement/">agreement with Turkey</a>, which was intended to curb entries into Greece via the Mediterranean Sea and end onward movement into Europe across the western Balkan route.</p>
<p>At the time, one European Commission senior policy official said, the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35854413">agreement</a>, which stipulated that Greece send back to Turkey those migrants who do not apply for asylum or have their claim rejected, was seen as necessary to “ensure the future of the EU”, where the migrant situation had become “explosive”. </p>
<p>Just over a year later, crossings on the eastern Mediterranean <a href="https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/55032">have dropped</a> from a weekly peak of 1,400 in early March 2016 to a weekly average of 27 for March 2017. The western Balkan path into Europe has seen <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/news/fewer-migrants-at-eu-borders-in-2016-HWnC1J">a similarly significant decrease</a> in crossings, from 764,000 in 2015 to 123,000 in 2016.</p>
<h2>Solving the crisis</h2>
<p>Declarations of success have come <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/human-rights-groups-warn-eu-turkey-migrant-deal-unhcr-refugees-refoulement/">despite criticisms</a> by NGOs and experts, who have condemned the Turkey deal as an outsourcing of responsibility.</p>
<p>This tactic may have stopped refugees from reaching France, Germany and the United Kingdom, at least temporarily, but it has not resolved the crisis at Europe’s borders. </p>
<p>Crossings of the <a href="https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/57706">central Mediterranean</a>, which predominantly impact <a href="https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/56593">Italy</a>, are actually on the rise, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-greek-asylum-crisis-moving-beyond-the-blame-game-to-a-real-solution-71107?sa=pg2&sq=asylum&sr=1">stalemate over relocation</a> of refugees from Greece to Turkey, a key part of the 2016 deal, continues.</p>
<p><a href="http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/sarajevo/13436.pdf">A new report</a> by the German think tank Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) shows that EU states along the western Balkan route are systematically – and violently – pushing back migrants. This route, which was at the forefront of the 2015 crisis, remains active, but it has slightly changed: movement has been redirected from Greece to Bulgaria’s land border with Turkey. </p>
<p>In 2016, 18,000 migrants crossed into Bulgaria. </p>
<p>According to the FES report, Bulgaria, Hungary and Croatia have responded to the new influx by intensifying “efforts to prevent entry into their territory”.</p>
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<p>Hungary has further restricted its asylum legislation, the report indicates, which “taken together with the physical push-backs, amount to the systematic violation of human rights” in the country, which already has the EU on edge with its ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/hungary-cracks-down-on-foreign-funding-dealing-a-harsh-blow-to-ngos-and-to-european-democracy-77185">crackdown</a> on civil liberties.</p>
<p>Attempts to forcibly close the borders in Hungary and Bulgaria have created a bottleneck in Serbia, where about 10,000 refugees and migrants are reported to be stuck. </p>
<p>Border tightening across the western Balkan region has also led to an increase in the use of illicit smuggling networks, which is precisely the problem the EU claims it is <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/irregular-migration-return-policy/facilitation-irregular-migration_en">seeking to tackle</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the stalemate on relocation has left thousands of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/03/15/greece-year-suffering-asylum-seekers">refugees trapped</a> on the Greek islands. Thus far, only <a href="https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/58003">1,000 people</a> have been sent back to Turkey.</p>
<p>With serious overcrowding and a lack of meaningful access to asylum procedures, the security situation in Greece is increasingly dire. Even with the support of EU officers, the backlog of applications remains <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/news/briefing/2015/1/54cb698d9/new-unhcr-report-warns-against-returning-asylum-seekers-greece.html">well over 30,000</a>, with one source reporting processing waits <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/12/greece-sudanese-refugee-13-year-wait-asylum-161201125100045.html">of up to 13 years</a>.</p>
<h2>Outsourcing responsibility</h2>
<p>The EU’s <a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/european-council/2017/06/22-23/">support for a possible agreement</a> with Libya, which would include training and equipping the Libyan Coast Guard to prevent departures from its shores, displays a lamentable lack of lesson-learning. </p>
<p>Italy had a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/01/eu-muammar-gaddafi-immigration">similar deal</a> with Libya in 2008, which collapsed with the Arab Spring. This directly contributed to the sharp rise in migration flows from 2011.</p>
<p>Nor is the Turkey agreement the first time that the EU has tried to outsource responsibility.</p>
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<p>The so-called <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/asylum/examination-of-applicants_en">Dublin Regulation</a>, which from 2003 designated asylum responsibility to the country of entry, quickly became unsustainable, with Italy and Greece unable to tackle the massive influx.</p>
<p>This led to a surge of migrants toward northern European countries. By the end of 2015, none of the EU’s 28 states, apart from Germany, <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/countries-rethink-commitments-to-accept-refugees-paris-attacks/">was willing to accept relocated refugees</a>. </p>
<p>By turning a blind eye to the problems that the 2016 Turkey agreement is wreaking on Balkan states, the European Commission will again struggle to formulate a cohesive shared response to the ongoing migration crisis. As one European Parliament official stated, the tendency instead has been “to try and keep the problem out of the EU as much as possible so as to not have to deal with the situation.”</p>
<p>But one European Commission policy official from the Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs suggested in an interview that “containing the numbers through third country deals is a precondition” for all EU states to determine a common policy. Having “more predictable numbers”, she said, would give national governments the “breathing space” needed to sell voters on the need for a stronger, common approach to refugee arrivals. </p>
<p>But with the EU in a deadlock over the new Dublin negotiations, it is unclear whether member states can actually agree on a plan to effectively share responsibility in the continuing migrant crisis. Frontline member states are acutely concerned that the outcome of current talks may worsen the situation by <a href="https://www.ecre.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ECRE-Comments-Dublin-IV.pdf">further overburdening them</a>. </p>
<p>Inaction is not an option. Under <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/3e5f35e94.pdf">international human rights law</a>, European states are obliged to ensure safe and effective access to their territory for those fleeing persecution. It also has a <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:12012E/TXT&from=EN">legal mandate</a> to find a solution: article 80 of the <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A12012E%2FTXT">Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union</a> requires the bloc to pursue a common asylum policy grounded in the “principle of solidarity and the fair sharing of responsibility”. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://euobserver.com/migration/138216">recent decision</a> by the Commission to open sanction procedures against Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic for failing to comply with the relocation decision is a step in this direction. </p>
<p>Confronting recalcitrant member states – perhaps by cutting off access to EU funding – the bloc can halt the current <em>a la carte</em> mentality that leads states to pick and choose when they share responsibility. Because, when it comes to Europe’s migration crisis, as one European Parliament member for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs put it, “either you get with the programme or you’re not in the club”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80435/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Less than two years after Europe’s migrant crisis began, EU officials have said that the situation is under control. It’s notTamara Tubakovic, PhD Researcher, The University of MelbournePhilomena Murray, Professor, School of Social and Political Sciences and EU Centre on Shared Complex Challenges, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/740002017-03-20T14:29:44Z2017-03-20T14:29:44ZHow the refugee crisis is dealing another blow to Europe’s Roma<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161519/original/image-20170320-9117-1ae3avu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=98%2C58%2C1845%2C1302&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/undpeuropeandcis/8636944091/in/photolist-eajgHq-GpiWGE-eajhay-eadAza-eajh1d-eadACZ-eajgBY-eadBWz-eajgob-eajfGJ-eajhwL-eadBdX-eadAb8-eadA1V-eadByg-eadAjZ-eajgPJ-eajg2J-eadC2g-eajfTs-eajhmo-eadAuM-4f7HC4-eajhsA">UNDP in Europe and Central Asia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The refugee crisis in Europe brings with it collateral damage. The flight of people from Syria and other conflict zones <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/refugee-crisis-20183">has been well-documented</a> and the policy challenges for governments have generated blanket coverage. But there have also been spill-over effects on other marginalised groups, particularly the Roma. </p>
<p>Romani minorities like Manouche, Kale and Sinti have lived in Europe <a href="http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/">since the 14th century</a> when they arrived from India, and have been in Europe often for as long as majority populations. You will find Roma in every European country. There are some 10-12m Romani people on the continent, according to the European Commission, and they often suffer from <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52010DC0133&from=EN">socio-economic marginalisation</a>. They are singled out as unwanted foreigners, and deemed perpetual migrants and outsiders. </p>
<p>This group has consistently struggled to gain acceptance, and now they face the headwinds created by a new influx of people. In October 2016 the Council of Europe <a href="https://wcd.coe.int/com.instranet.InstraServlet?command=com.instranet.CmdBlobGet&InstranetImage=2947279&SecMode=1&DocId=2385346&Usage=2">published a document</a> that examined how Romani minorities in Europe were affected by the 2015-16 refugee crisis. One of the main effects cited in this document was the rise of right-wing populism and attitudes, which has resulted in an increased incidence of Romaphobia in politics and the media.</p>
<h2>Integration</h2>
<p>The link between the two groups is inescapable. Time and time again, Romani communities have been drawn into national asylum policy debates raising issues of inclusion, integration and belonging. Romaphobic ideas can be found in mainstream politics and media. It is not the sole preserve of the far right. In fact, the failure of different states to adequately integrate Roma has been used as a justification to exclude other asylum seekers. </p>
<p>While the <a href="http://frontex.europa.eu/trends-and-routes/western-balkan-route/">Western Balkan route</a> was still open, from Sept 2015 to March 2016, one of the plans to address the refugee crisis was the EU Emergency Relocation scheme. <a href="http://www.euractiv.com/section/justice-home-affairs/news/visegrad-countries-oppose-commissions-revamped-asylum-policy/">The Visegrad countries</a> - the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary – all openly opposed the quotas envisaged under this scheme, even though only Hungary was positioned on the route and was affected by a larger number of refugees seeking access. </p>
<p>The social-democratic <a href="http://www.romea.cz/en/news/world/slovak-pm-we-can-t-integrate-our-own-roma-to-say-nothing-of-refugees">Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico,</a> justified his opposition to refugee quotas with following words:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>After all, let’s be honest, we aren’t even capable of integrating our own Romani fellow citizens, of whom we have hundreds of thousands. How can we integrate people who are somewhere completely else when it comes to lifestyle and religion?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Opposition to refugee quotas was therefore legitimised by recourse to the Roma, and in the words not of an extremist party leader, but a prime minister from mainstream politics.</p>
<h2>Selective empathy</h2>
<p>Of course, the refugee crisis has shown too that Europe can be welcoming to those in need. Post-Yugoslav states along the Western Balkan route took a more benevolent approach as highlighted by an incident in Croatia during October 2015. </p>
<p>It all started when a <a href="http://www.euronews.com/2015/11/06/croatia-who-is-nina-the-little-girl-found-in-a-park">three-year-old girl</a> was found in a park in the small town of Velika Gorica, half an hour’s drive from the capital, Zagreb. For a month Croatian authorities believed that the girl had become separated from her refugee parents while on her way to Western Europe. Local media were filled with sympathy and feverishly reported on the story, hoping to reunite the girl with her parents. After a month of speaking different Middle-Eastern languages to the girl, she responded to a local language: a Bayash language, which is spoken by a large number of Roma in Croatia.</p>
<p>Immediately, the tone of the coverage changed. Croatian national television moved on to asking how parents could leave their child behind, even suggesting that the child was abandoned due to bad behaviour, as if this is something which Roma would do. The empathy and appeal to humanity was lost as soon as it was established that she was Roma and not an “innocent” refugee. </p>
<h2>Policy changes</h2>
<p>The Roma were caught in the crossfire again as the refugee crisis presented an opportunity to change asylum legislation. In <a href="http://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/germany/asylum-procedure/safe-country-concepts/safe-country-origin">October 2015</a>, in response to the arrival of a large number of refugees, Germany changed its asylum policy to add new “safe countries of origin” – including Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro – to a list which included other Western Balkan countries. </p>
<p>It was an exercise in political expediency, which sought to slow the flow of refugees through the Balkan states as the refugee crisis ramped up. And so while Germany accepted refugees from some countries (such as Syria) under the new policy, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/germany-roma-march-asylum-seeker-crackdown-160605092954463.html">Roma can now be returned</a> to countries of origin in the Western Balkans. It is, however, questionable, if after decades living in Germany, they have anywhere to return to. And there is the obvious question of whether they are indeed safe in the countries now designated as such, when there is <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/news/2016/06/15/roma-fear-paying-price-germany%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Csafe-countries%E2%80%9D-policy">evidence to the contrary</a> from Roma testimony. </p>
<p>Romani communities enjoy only a qualified inclusion within European nation states as they are never fully integrated. Over the years, this has translated into a precarious position as second-class citizens. Stereotypes have been perpetuated which fuel <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/is-romaphobia-the-last-acceptable-form-of-racism">the idea that Roma do not really belong</a> and which foster discrimination which restricts Roma access to education, employment, and housing. Witness recent anti-refugee rhetoric in Hungary <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-hungary-roma-idUSKCN0RV43E20151001">which has galvanised anti-Roma attitudes</a>. It means that they are particularly vulnerable to the kinds of shocks brought about by the refugee crisis: while the Romaphobic rhetoric escalates, their marginalisation intensifies and is normalised.</p>
<p>The fact that this type of talk has migrated from the extreme right to the mainstream is perhaps the most worrying trend, and serves to highlight the broader story around the refugee crisis. The position of Roma has maybe always been the canary in the coal mine, a signal that Europe has always struggled with a crisis of inclusion of marginalised groups, and a fragile ability to accommodate diversity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74000/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An influx of people seeking shelter from conflict has sharpened attitudes against groups which have been in Europe for centuries.Julija Sardelic, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of LiverpoolAidan McGarry, Principal Lecturer in Politics, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/655912016-09-19T13:18:12Z2016-09-19T13:18:12ZThe hidden costs of closed borders for migrants stuck in Serbia<p>In Spring 2016, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/slovenia-croatia-close-borders-to-migrants-refugees-serbia-macedonia-eu-deal-turkey/">“closed” their borders</a> to migrants who had been transiting these countries via the “Balkan route” on their way further into the European Union. The closures follow other attempts at shutting EU borders: Hungary built a <a href="https://theconversation.com/fencing-off-the-east-how-the-refugee-crisis-is-dividing-the-european-union-47586">fence</a> along its border with Serbia, while the so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-europes-refugee-deal-with-turkey-is-it-legal-and-can-it-work-56054">“EU-Turkey” deal</a> was intended to prevent people from reaching EU borders by sending those who had crossed the Mediterranean back to Turkey. </p>
<p>Despite the border closures, the Balkan route is still active – a problem recognised at an <a href="http://www.politico.eu/interactive/western-balkans-route-map-migration-refugees-crisis-europe-asylum/">EU leaders’ meeting in July</a>. Now those refugees not able to get any further are stuck in limbo. Non-governmental organisatons (NGOs) and the UNHCR estimate there are at least <a href="http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/country.php?id=502">200 arrivals per day</a> in Serbia, with around 5,000 people stuck <a href="http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/download.php?id=1926">in Serbia alone</a>. </p>
<p>Even though the number of people stuck in Serbia is comparatively small, our interviews throughout the summer of 2016 showed that a lack of resources and attention is precipitating a secondary humanitarian crisis: a growing refugee population is living in increasingly precarious conditions and is almost wholly reliant on smugglers to leave. The <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/latest/2016/7/5790d5e64/hundreds-suffer-hungary-serbia-border.html">UNHCR believes</a> that border closures divert problems and aggravate living conditions, while Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) told us they see a correlation between the closures and increased levels of violence against refugees – both by smugglers and border authorities. </p>
<h2>The situation in Serbia</h2>
<p>Serbia became a focal point of the refugee crisis in the summer of 2015, when an unprecedented number of new arrivals crossed into the country on their way to Western Europe via Hungary and Croatia. Typically, most people stayed in Serbia for only a few days before moving towards the EU. In contrast to measures employed by its neighbours, the Serbian government adopted an official policy stating that it would not erect fences and would respect international laws on human rights by <a href="http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/9/Politika/1952095/Vu%C4%8Di%C4%87%3A+Srbija+ne%C4%87e+podizati+zidove+prema+susedima.html?tts=yes">not restricting movement of people searching protection</a>. This changed dramatically a year later, and although Serbia has not completely sealed its own borders, policy has shifted from protecting rights to <a href="http://www.danas.rs/drustvo.55.html?news_id=327641&title=%20Vulin:%20Vreme%20je%20za%20drasti%C4%8Dnije%20mere%20protiv%20migranata">protecting borders</a>. </p>
<p>These attempts at sealing borders have been accompanied with a complex and fragmented regional regime of asylum registrations and so called “push backs”, where people crossing the border into Hungary, for instance, are intercepted and returned to Serbia. The official and “legal” way to cross into Hungary is via one of the waiting lists operated by local authorities. But one local NGO working with refugees in Serbia said the information about how these waiting lists operate is unclear and contradictory.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138243/original/image-20160919-11100-ipz41j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138243/original/image-20160919-11100-ipz41j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138243/original/image-20160919-11100-ipz41j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138243/original/image-20160919-11100-ipz41j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138243/original/image-20160919-11100-ipz41j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138243/original/image-20160919-11100-ipz41j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138243/original/image-20160919-11100-ipz41j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In a Belgrade park, fenced off so migrants can’t camp there, people wait for free meals provided by a local NGO.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Only <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/latest/2016/7/5790d5e64/hundreds-suffer-hungary-serbia-border.html">30 people are admitted </a> into Hungary legally each day via two border points with Serbia, but the number of people arriving in Serbia each day far exceeds the number “allowed” to leave, so people are staying for longer periods of time (in some cases, several months). Refugees are also reporting to aid workers that they are facing increasing violence against them by Hungarian border police. <a href="http://www.migszol.com/blog/greetings-from-belgrade-from-the-other-side-of-the-fence">Similar reports</a> are also being collated by <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hungary-serbia-border-refugees-beatings-violence-human-rights-watch-1.3676608">activists</a> working with refugees in Belgrade. </p>
<p>Crossing borders into Hungary or Croatia now takes several attempts, both for people attempting to cross legally and illegally. The prices paid to smugglers have, according to our informants, increased dramatically: crossing the Serbia-Croatia border with a smuggler, we were told, now costs €1,500 per person. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-bulgaria-iraq-idUSKCN11J1DV">Deaths have also occurred</a> along the Bulgaria-Romania border, as refugees try to find alternative routes, following the “closure” of the Macedonian border. </p>
<h2>Pressures on resources</h2>
<p>The Serbian state is partly unwilling and partly unable to provide adequate support and welfare for the growing number of refugees. Politically, its policy has shifted away from supporting refugees towards controlling borders in an effort to appease voters who are no longer sympathetic to the refugees’ stay in the country. In practical terms, the state has a support system in place – a state-run <a href="http://www.kirs.gov.rs/articles/index.php?lang=ENG">Commissariat for Refugees and Asylum</a>, which oversees distribution of aid and runs “asylum reception centres”. But the infrastructure in place is not wholly adequate in meeting the actual needs of the refugees. </p>
<p><a href="http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/download.php?id=1926">UNHCR reports that 87% of refugees</a> are housed in official centres. But the need for shelter far outstrips supply, and homelessness – particularly among single men – is growing. The state-run “asylum reception centres” are located near Belgrade, the Hungarian-Serbian border, the Croatian-Serbian border and in Presevo, near the Macedonian border. Information on the centres is contradictory. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138246/original/image-20160919-11134-wjl3u3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138246/original/image-20160919-11134-wjl3u3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138246/original/image-20160919-11134-wjl3u3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138246/original/image-20160919-11134-wjl3u3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138246/original/image-20160919-11134-wjl3u3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138246/original/image-20160919-11134-wjl3u3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138246/original/image-20160919-11134-wjl3u3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An informal camp near the Hungarian border, June 2 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marta Stojic Mitrovic</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The government claims that reception centres with a capacity for 2,000 people <a href="http://www.blic.rs/vesti/drustvo/broj-migranata-u-srbiji-se-ne-povecava-i-dalje-ih-ima-oko-tri-hiljade/89yqsm3">are not full</a>. But during our visits to the centres between June and August 2016, it was clear that in at least four of them, people were being accommodated in tents pitched outside of the centres themselves, suggesting overcrowding. </p>
<p>It’s also possible that refugees are choosing not to go the official camps, as it is unclear to most people – including aid workers – whether refugees staying there would be allowed to leave Serbia later. Informal camps and settlements along the Hungarian border have also sprung up, and we saw families with small children living in these settlements. </p>
<h2>Pushed out of public places</h2>
<p>In places like Belgrade, people, mainly single men unable or unwilling to access official camps, are sleeping rough in parks and squats. Ever since the crisis unfolded, public parks have been important hubs for sharing information about the route, and establishing contacts with other refugees and activists. Parks have free public wifi, free meals distributed by the NGO Refugee Aid Serbia, and various activists – some who speak Arabic and Farsi – who help refugees access information, answer questions and provide free tea. </p>
<p>This summer, the local authorities started to clear the city of refugees by discouraging people from sleeping in the two centrally located parks – the Luka Celovic Park and Bristol Park – both located near the central bus station, via which many refugees arrived into Belgrade. In July 2016, all the grass in the central parks populated by refugees was dug up, and the parks fenced off, which precipitated <a href="http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society.php?yyyy=2016&mm=07&dd=29&nav_id=98765">a hunger strike by them</a>. </p>
<p>For a while, people sleeping rough in the park relocated to decrepit buildings in a nearby derelict storage yard, living in a squat with no facilities, except for a single hosepipe. But on September 16 2016, local authorities evicted refugees as some of the buildings were <a href="http://www.blic.rs/vesti/beograd/nova-drama-u-savamali-migranti-koce-izgradnju-beograda-na-vodi/tpx7hb9">being demolished</a> to make way for a controversial development scheme, Belgrade Waterfront. </p>
<p>Refugees living in squats and parks rely on food donations by Refugee Aid Serbia for survival, and wait for a chance to cross the borders. Longer stays mean that many are running out of money and must either wait for money to arrive from family abroad, or seek increasingly desperate means of procuring it. </p>
<p>The fencing off of the parks has led to vocal protests by activists who see this as an attempt to break up the refugee communities, push them to the margins of the city and disable them from contacting smugglers, who use the parks as places to establish contact with refugees.</p>
<p>The support networks to help refugees are continually under threat: all NGOs must register with the commissariat in order to operate, but the official policy towards them is becoming increasingly hostile. Volunteers are also starting to report police harassment of activists aiding refugees in the park, particularly those not officially affiliated to NGOs. </p>
<h2>Local tensions</h2>
<p>Another perceptible change has been the shift in public mood. While outright xenophobic attacks against refugees are rare in Serbia, there have been some local anti-refugee protests.</p>
<p>In the border town of Sid, residents are petitioning for the <a href="http://www.rtv.rs/sr_lat/vojvodina/sid-peticija-za-izmestanje-prihvatnih-centara_752274.html">removal of the refugee camp</a>, and in Belgrade, a group of residents carried out a <a href="http://www.novosti.rs/vesti/beograd.74.html:620931-Protest-zitelja-Savamale-zbog-bahatosti-migranata-Napali-su-devojcicu-decu-necemo-slati-u-skolu">daily protest</a> throughout August 2016 against refugees living in the park. This marks a drastic departure from a broadly sympathetic public attitude in 2015 and the emergence of solidarity networks. The change in mood can partly be attributed to the population’s own economic woes, mass unemployment and generally poor welfare provision, and the feeling that refugees have now overstayed their welcome. </p>
<p>Our interviews this summer show how the border closures around transit countries come with hidden costs. Politicians are able to claim that specific routes are “closed”, so giving the impression that all problems pertaining to these routes have been dealt with. In reality, border closures simply mean that attention is diverted from the increasingly precarious living conditions in which refugees stuck in transit zones find themselves. The EU border closures have left a significant population reliant on volunteers, donations, aid organisations and smugglers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Blocked from crossing borders further into Europe, migrants are turning to smugglers.Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations & Deputy Director Aston Centre for Europe, Aston UniversityMаrtа Stojić Mitrović, Researcher, Ethnography Institute, Serbian Academy of Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.