The consequences of the migration crisis on the Balkan route and human rights: The current situation and prospects in Serbia

• Authors: Magdalena Bogucewicz
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This paper reflects on reports documenting human rights violations on the Balkan route as one of the implications of European migration policies, and applies them to the Serbian context. The Republic of Serbia is considered as one of the main transit countries for the migrant traffic on the Balkan Peninsula and eventually has become an unlikely gatekeeper of European Union when many migrants got stranded on its territory as a result of gradual border securitization. Further politics of closed borders have caused a serious concern of non-governmental organizations and activists when violent practices of security forces and smugglers got revealed. Serbia, in its pursuit of EU accession, must prove its respect for fundamental human rights while not losing sight of its national interest.

Keywords

EN

migration crisis; human rights; Serbia; Balkan route; push backs

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Eastern Review
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 9
• Pages: 149-167

Dates

published

2020-12-30

Contributors

author

Magdalena Bogucewicz

• Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, Faculty of Political Science and Journalism

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3157-9524

References

• Agamben, G. 2008. Homo Sacer. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Prószyński i S-ka SA.
• AIDA. 2019. Short Overview Asylum Procedure, http://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/serbia/short-overview-asylum-procedure (accessed 20.11.2019).
• AIDA. 2020. Serbia. Country Report, https://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/serbia (accessed 1.09.2020).
• Aleksandar Vučić: ‘Serbia has become one of the pillars of stability in the Balkan’. 2015, https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/full-news/-/asset_publisher/y5xQt7QdunzT/content/aleksandar-vucic-serbia-has-become-one-of-the-pillars-of-stability-in-the-balkan-?_101_INSTANCE_y5xQt7QdunzT_languageId=en_GB (accessed 1.09.2019).
• Amnesty International. 2018. Serbia 2017/2018, https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe-and-central-asia/serbia/report-serbia/ (accessed 1.01.2019).
• Babić, M. 2012. Aporie tożsamości. Serbowie, Chorwaci i Unia Europejska. In: M. Babić, F. Gołembski (eds.). Problemy aksjologiczne w relacjach Unii Europejskiej z Bałkanami. Warszawa: Instytut Europeistyki, Wydział Dziennikarstwa i Nauk Politycznych Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, pp. 101–129.
• Belgrade Centre for Human Rights. 2017. A. Country report: Serbia, Conditions in reception facilities, https://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/serbia/conditions-reception-facilities (accessed 1.01.2019).
• Belgrade Centre for Human Rights. 2017. C. Country report: Serbia, Types of accommodation, https://www.asylumineurope.org/reports/country/serbia/types-accommodation (accessed 1.01.2019).
• Belgrade Centre for Human Rights. 2019. Right to Asylum in the Republic of Serbia. Periodic Report for January-June 2019, http://www.bgcentar.org.rs/bgcentar/eng-lat/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Periodic-report-Right-to-Asylum-in-Serbia-January-June-2019.pdf (accessed 1.09.2020).
• Betts, A. 2013. Survival Migration: Failed Governance and the Crisis of Displacement. Ithaka: Cornell University Press.
• Bierzanek, R., Symonides, J. 2005. Prawo międzynarodowe publiczne. Warszawa: LexisNexis.
• Border Violence Monitoring. 2019, https://www.borderviolence.eu/violence-reports/ (accessed 1.09.2019).
• Cantat, C. 2019. The Rise and Fall of Migration Solidarity in Belgrade: Marginalising Solidarity and Institutionalising Aid. In: C. Cantat , E. Sevinin, E. Maczyńska, T. Birey (eds.). Challenging the Political Across Borders: Migrants’ and Solidarity Struggles, CEU CPS Books Series, pp.163–189.
• Castles, S., Miller, M.J. 2011. Migracje we współczesnym świecie. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
• CeSid. 2019. Stavovi građana prema uticaju izbegličke i migracione krize u 19 jedinica lokalne samouprave u Srbiji, https://www.rs.undp.org/content/serbia/sr/home/library/poverty/stavovi-gra_ana-prema-uticaju-izbeglike-i-migracione-krize-u-19-.html (accessed 1.09.2020).
• Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:2bf140bf-a3f8-4ab2-b506-fd71826e6da6.0023.02/DOC_1&format=PDF (accessed 1.01.2019).
• Constitution of the Republic of Serbia. 2006. Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia 83.
• Council of Europe. 2017. Report of the fact-finding mission by Ambassador Tomáš Boček, https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectId=090000168075e9b2#_Toc494960694 (accessed 3.01.2019).
• Crawley, H., Skleparis, D. 2018. Refugees, migrants, neither, both: categorical fetishism and the politics of bounding in Europe’s ‘migration crisis’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 44: 1, pp. 48–64.
• Cucić: Ubijeni migrant mesecima maltretirao druge, http://rs.n1info.com/Vesti/a489977/Komesar-za-izbeglice-o-ubistvu-migranta.html (accessed 1.09.2020).
• Cymbranowicz, K. 2017. Europa (bez granic) – w poszukiwaniu rozwiązania kryzysu migracyjnego w Unii Europejskiej. In: H. Tendera-Właszczuk, W. Bąba, M. Zajączkowska (eds.). Nowe perspektywy integracji europejskiej w obliczu wyzwań i zagrożeń. Warszawa: Difin SA, pp. 48–79.
• Dimitriadi, A., Petreska, E., Rácz, K., Simic, I. 2016. Study on smuggling of migrants, https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/case_study_5_greece_-_for-mer_yugoslav_republic_of_macedonia_-_serbia_hungary.pdf (accessed 1.01.2019).
• EASO. 2016. EASO Guidance on Reception Conditions: Operational Standards and Indicators, https://www.easo.europa.eu/sites/default/files/EASO%20Guidance%20on%20reception%20conditions%20-%20operational%20standards%20and%20indicators%5B3%5D.pdf (accessed 1.09.2020).
• European Commission. 2017. EU announces additional emergency aid to help refugees in Serbia, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_17_3730 (accessed 1.09.2020).
• European Commission. 2018. Serbia 2018 Report, https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/near/files/20180417-serbia-report.pdf (accessed 4.01.2019).
• Grzymkowska, M. 2005. Prawa człowieka. Bielsko-Biała: Wydawnictwo STO.
• Hall, R., Pantovic, M. 2018. Migrants stuck in Serbia play a desperate ‘game’ to reach the EU, https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-01-03/migrants-stuck-serbia-play-desperate-game-reach-eu (accessed 1.01.2019).
• Human Rights Watch. 2015. Serbia: Police Abusing Migrants, Asylum Seekers, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/04/15/serbia-police-abusing-migrants-asylum-seekers (ac¬cessed 1.01.2019).
• Janaurova, B. 2018. ‘No Guardian’: Child Refugees at Risk in Serbia, http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/no-guardian-child-refugees-at-risk-in-serbia-09-04-2018 (accessed 4.01.2019).
• Kilibarda, P. 2017. Obligations of transit countries under refugee law: A Western Balkans case study. International Review of the Red Cross 99(904), pp. 211–239.
• Klaus, W. 2017. Closing Gates to Refugees: The Causes and Effects of the 2015 “Migration Crisis” on Border Management in Hungary and Poland. Yearbook of the Institute of East-Central Europe 15(3), pp. 11–34.
• Kmak, M. 2015.“The Ugly” of EU Migration Policy: The role of the Recast Reception Directive in Frag- mentation of the Refugee Subject. In: D.A. Gozdecka, M. Kmak (eds.). Europe at the Edge of Pluralism. Cambridge: Antwerp and Portland: Intersentia Publishing, pp. 87–91.
• Krasić, B., Milić, N., Šahović, V. 2017. Unaccompanied and Separated Children in Serbia. Belgrade: Belgrade Centre for Human Rights.
• Krysienel, K. 2020. Bośnia i Hercegowina wobec kryzysu imigracyjnego na Bałkanach. In: K. Cebul, R. Zenderowski (eds.). Państwa Europy Środkowej i Bałkanów wobec kryzysu migracyjnego. Warszawa: CeDeWu, pp. 25–40.
• Law on Asylum and Temporary Protection of the Republic of Serbia. 2018. Official Gazette 24.
• Mandic, D. 2017. Trafficking and Syrian Refugee Smuggling: Evidence from the Balkan Route. Social Inclusion 5(2), pp. 28–38.
• Milovanović, M. 2019. Dva miliona Srba u dijaspori: Prosečna starost osoba koje odlaze je 34, 7 godina, a najveći broj živi u Americi, https://www.nedeljnik.rs/dva-miliona-srba-u-dijaspori-prosecna-starost-osoba-koje-odlaze-je-347-godina-a-najveci-broj-zivi-u-americi/ (accessed 1.12.2020).
• MSF. 2016. Sharp increase in violence against migrants since border closures in the Balkans, https://www.msf.org/serbia-sharp-increase-violence-against-migrants-border-closures-balkans (accessed 1.01.2019).
• MSF. 2017. Serbia: Games Of Violence, https://www.msf.org/sites/msf.org/files/serbia-games-of-violence-3.10.17.pdf (accessed 1.01.2019).
• MSF. 2020. International Activity Report: Balkans, https://www.msf.org/international-activity-report-2019/balkans (accessed 1.09.2020).
• OXFAM. 2017. A Dangerous ‘Game’: The pushback of migrants, including refugees, at Europe’s borders, https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/bp-dangerous-game-pushback-migrants-refugees-060417-en_0.pdf (accessed 1.01.2019).
• Petrović, L. 2020. Right to Asylum in The Republic of Serbia 2019. Belgrade: Belgrade Centre for Human Rights.
• Pietryka, M. 2019. Kryzys migracyjny jako stan wyjątkowy. Colloquium Wydziału Nauk Humanistycznych i Społecznych AMW 2, pp.47–66.
• Potyrała, A. 2005. Współczesne uchodźctwo. Próby rozwiązania międzynarodowego problemu. Poznań: Wyższa Szkoła Nauk Humanistycznych i Dziennikarstwa.
• Potyrała, A. 2019. Kryzys migracyjny 2015+: między solidarnością a partykularyzmem, Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa.
• Reggiardo, A. 2019. Distrust and stigmatization of NGOs and volunteers at the time of the European migrant “crisis”. Conflict and implication on social solidarity. Partecipazione e Conflitto. The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies 12(2), pp. 460–486.
• Santic, D., Minca, C., Umek, D. 2017. The Balkan Migration Route: Reflections from a Serbian Observatory. In: M. Bobić, S. Janković (eds.). Towards Understanding of Contemporary Migration. Belgrade: University of Belgrade, pp. 221–239.
• Save the Children. 2017. Refugee and migrant children injured in illegal border push-backs across Balkans, https://www.savethechildren.net/article/refugee-and-migrant-children-injured-illegal-border-push-backs-across-balkans (accessed 1.01.2019).
• Squires, N. 2017. A year on from EU-Turkey deal, refugees and migrants in limbo commit suicide and suffer from trauma, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/14/year-eu-turkey-deal-refugees-migrants-limbo-commit-suicide-suffer/ (accessed 3.01.2019).
• Stojic Mitrovic, M. 2018. The Reception of Migrants in Serbia: Policies, Practices, and Concepts. Journal of Human Rights and Social Work 4(1), pp. 17–27.
• Taylor, L., Cardi, V.2017. The Smuggling Game, Playing with life and death to reach Europe, http://news.trust.org/shorthand/the-smuggling-game/ (accessed 3.01.2019).
• Tondo, L. 2018. Croatia violating EU law by sending asylum seekers back to Bosnia, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/17/croatia-violating-eu-law-by-sending-back-asylum-seekers-to-bosnia (accessed 1.09.2019).
• UNHCR. 2010. Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, https://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3b66c2aa10.pdf (accessed 1.01.2019).
• UNHCR. 2019. Serbia, https://www.unhcr.org/see/where-we-work/serbia (accessed 20.11.2019).
• UNODC. 2015. World Drug Report, https://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr2015/World_Drug_Report_2015.pdf (accessed 1.09.2020).
• Voynov, G., Franková, H., Górczyńska, M., Nabergoj, M. 2017. Pushed Back at the Door: Denial of Access to Asylum in Eastern EU Member States, https://www.helsinki.hu/wp-content/uploads/pushed_back.pdf (accessed 3.01.2019).
• Vučić o migrantima: Ukoliko bude potrebno, u Srbiju neće ući niko. 2020, http://rs.n1info.com/Vesti/a574738/Vucic-o-migrantima-izborima-Obradovicu-Milanovicu.html (accessed 1.09.2020).
• Walker, S. 2019. Croatian police use violence to push back migrants, president admits, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/16/croatian-police-use-violence-to-push-back-migrants-says-president (accessed 1.09.2020).
• Zebić, E. 2017. Hrvatska policija odbija odgovornost za smrt djevojčice iz Afganistana, https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/afganistan-izbjeglice-djevojcica-poginula-na-sinama/28929173.html (accessed 1.01.2019).
• Zivanovic, M. 2017. Serbia, Croatia Face Lawsuits Over Migrant Girl’s Death, http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/family-of-killed-afghan-girl-to-launch-cases-against-croatia-and-serbia-12-19-2017 (accessed 1.01.2019).
• Zivanovic, M., Vladisavljevic, A., Dimitrov, M., Lakic, M. 2018. Number of Unaccompanied Child Refugees Rises in Balkans, http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/number-of-unaccompanied-child-refugees-rises-in-balkans-06-20-2018 (accessed 1.01.2019).
• Zuvela, M. 2017. Balkan police break up Turkish migrant smuggling ring, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-balkans-arrests/balkan-police-break-up-turkish-migrant-smuggling-ring-idUSKCN1BP25X?il=0 (accessed 1.01.2019).

Identifiers

DOI

10.18778/1427-9657.09.10