Just a stone’s throw away from Belgrade’s busy central train station, there’s now a field scattered with ruins. Hangars that housed hundreds of migrants this winter were destroyed by bulldozers on May 16.

Since then, used blankets, mattresses, and sneakers, worn away from a blistering sun, are the only remnants of the shelters’ former inhabitants. Apart from the occasional stray roaming the streets at night, the place is abandoned.  A few meters away on the banks of the river Save, the scaffold of a future luxury tourist complex is emerging from the ground.

In a few years time, there will be a hotel, a shopping center and luxury apartments instead of makeshift shelters - a showcase cityscape.

Stevan Tatalovic is a migration researcher at the University of Belgrade. In his opinion, the Serbian government wanted to expedite the demolition of the hangars and that the luxury apartments offered a fitting excuse.

According to recent figures by the UNHCR, there are currently 4,688 refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrants in Serbia (as of August 2017). Of those, 4,391 were accommodated in 18 governmental centers – a full 94 percent. In Belgrade, around 1,400 persons are accommodated in the Krnjaca Asylum Centres and in Obrenovac. It is estimated that up to 100 refugees and migrants have stayed in the city center and are sleeping rough. 

However, Tatalovic believes that there are least three times as many.

New bans

During summer, some refugees spend the night outside in city parks or sleep in abandoned buildings. Others who have managed to save a bit of money can afford to pay a night in a youth hostel. But the municipality is keen on making their presence still less visible by issuing new bans.

Since November 2016, NGOs and charity organizations are not allowed to distribute food, water or clothing in the streets anymore. They were also banned from the lawns by the University’s Faculty of Law, that had become known as the “park chai” (Tea park) because volunteers had regularly handed out tea to migrants there.

Some organizations are trying to make daily life for migrants less difficult. The InfoPark organization on the central Gravila Principa street opened its doors to migrants, offering language courses in English, Serbian and German as well as computers that the migrants can use. There’s also a psychologist and a social worker that guests can consult.  

Many people who come to the center are extremely fragile, says Irena Vari, coordinator of InfoPark’s protection mission. “When they come to class, they will tell us about the things that are bothering them”.

Point of contact

For Abdul Sabour, a 25-year old refugee from Afghanistan, coming to InfoPark was like the light at the end of the tunnel. He has been with the organization several months and is willing to help organize the activities. “When we were still living in the hangars this winter, I was going around to get the children and bring them to English classes”, he recalls, smiling.

But taking part in InfoPark’s activities also allows him to escape the increasingly tense atmosphere in the refugee centers. “Most of the people in the center are not doing well. They are losing their heads”, he says.

For many migrants, Serbia is a trap that closed when Hungary and neighboring Croatia closed their borders in late summer 2015. Since then, only a few dozen people are allowed to the leave the countries and cross borders per week.

After months and even years of being stuck in Serbia, some refugees are willing to give up their dreams of Germany or Sweden and live in Serbia if they were granted asylum there. They have built strong friendships and know their way around. Like Amir Ali, who had to flee Pakistan after receiving death threats from the Taliban. Far from his family, he found comfort with the staff at InfoPark in Belgrade. Leaving those people now would be hard, he confesses. “They are my new family”.

But the chances of being granted asylum remain extremely low in Serbia. Over the past three months, there has only been one positive decision, according to the UNHCR.