June 20, World Refugee Day, is dedicated to raising awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world. On the eve of this day, during the previous week we shared with you experiences and knowledge we have gained through our work on protection of refugees from Middle East and Africa. We shared with you who are the people we meet, what they did, what they were thinking about and who they were "before", but also to share where they go, what they hope for and what is the desired “after” for them. How similar we are and how different; how much and what we have learned about each other and from each other.

Today, once again, we raise our voices for their urgent protection, human rights and for life in safety and dignity!

Today we want to remind you that, as we speak, violence continues to force hundreds of families to flee each day and yet there are very few safe channels that people can take to reach protection and safety. With Europe’s land borders sealed, people are forced into the hands of smugglers and into overcrowded boats on the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. Even more, they are forced to go on long, risky journeys over land and life threatening conditions. Many lives have been lost.

We want to remind you that these people are people like you and me, who had no choice, but to flee and leave everything behind, in search for a better life. And as they have no other choice, they will continue to risk their lives, exposing themselves to smugglers and all sorts of risks as long as there are no safe alternatives.

The only way Europe can prevent a worsening crisis on its territory is to replace the smugglers by providing a safe, legal and free alternative to reach Europe. Thus today, we urge those in power to urgently provide functional legal avenues allowing refugees to reach Europe safely and move through the legal migration pathways. And we invite you, our friends, colleagues and coworkers, to join us and continue to raise your voices for Safe Passage and urgent protection of refugees, of people like you and me, who, at this moment, need our support! 

"Shukran" is Arabic for "thank you".
"How are you" is "kejfa haluk".
Good is "Bihair".
"La bihair" is when it is not so good.
And everything will be only "Insallah" - "if God wills".
"Taman" is Serbian "taman", “just right”, and everything is clear.

Tea is "šaj" and it’s consumed on a daily basis and with lots of sugar. Almost as if you drank sugar with some tea. If there is no sugar, there is no point in tea.

Appropriate size of trousers in Afghanistan is not measured by using  “the elbow method”, but by the “the neck method". You stretch trousers around the waist, holding with fingers the two farthest ends. Then with the part which normally goes around the waist, try to circle your neck. If the ends are touching, the size is appropriate. A good choice is confirmed by the head nodding to the left and to the right, meaning approval.

Decisions are made within a group, with the approval of all present. The problems are being solved in the same manner. People who fell close or relatives often hold hands.

The most popular Pakistani musician was Nustrat-Fateh Ali Khan. Ali Khan was able to sing for hours without stopping, and with the first beats of his music people from Pakistan gather instantly. And so the conversation turns into a group dance.

And the dance turns into a laughter; into conversations about the meaning of different names and words, and the best culinary recipes. Several bagels, biscuits and sardines turn into a festive lunch, and one Belgrade park turns into a place, where at least for a moment, despite all the hardships that brought us together, all becomes tamam and all is bihair. For those moments we are grateful to each other.

To those moments - shukran!

Student from Syria who applied for her last exam, and the next day found out that her faculty no longer existed.

Successful Iranian volleyball player, who wants a chance to be a professional athlete.

Little girl from Iraq who loves puzzles and has seven best friends with whom she will meet after the "journey".

A man from Somalia, who left his village for the first time after 60 years, and last winter, in Bulgaria, for the first time he saw snow.

Young Afghan banker, who does not want to get married, "even though it’s about time", and dreams of becoming a successful businessman.

Fourteen-year-old girl from Syria who will always remember Macedonia for having heard of a wild pig for the first time.

IT engineer from Afghanistan, who no longer plans to work as an engineer in Germany, but wants to join a humanitarian organization and help people in need.

Ten-year-old boy, who was sent by his parents on the journey with an older cousin, to arrive somewhere where "he may succeed", and when he does, he’ll bring his younger sister around, to whom he promised that he would  always take care of.

Woman who arrived in Europe and managed by some miracle to cross all the borders, and two weeks later, found out that her entire family had drowned in the sea trying to join her.

...

Who do we meet?

We meet people, people like us.

People who, one day, returning from work, school, or walk, found ruins instead of their homes. And who have been making decision ever since, decisions which are life-saving or life-ending.  

Courageous. Frightened. Determined. Sad. Smiling. Injured. Tired. Persistent.

We met Mohammed, who has several nicknames, but his name is not Refugee.

Bahir, whose name is not Refugee. 

Abdul, Zaida, Dawud, Zubauda, now all called Refugees.

We met...

A person who had plans and dreams. A person who daydreamed. When to marry. How many children to have. How to name them. Who has never planned to marry! Who argued with her partner, so they decided that he would name the boy, and she the girl.

A person having breakfast. Or not. Has lunch. Dinner.  A person that sleeps. Or sleeps poorly.  Who wakes up. Laughs. Chooses a shirt to wear. Has a favourite football team. Does not like sports. Would like a new hairstyle. And who may have sung song in childhood in "English" making up words of her own, just like you. Or maybe started studying foreign languages at the age of two. Just like you or someone you know.

A person who is a believer, atheist, anarchist, philosopher, Yogi.

Who had a life; was a sister; a teacher; a student; a daughter; a best friend; a musician; the biggest fan of Rolling Stones; was collecting shells; and exchanged letters with her younger sister using made up sign language that only the two of them understood; had a grandmother whom he visited on Thursdays; a cat named Ra; who loved to watch quizzes; who only wore green shirts for an entire year; and created profile pictures on Facebook of downloaded Instagram’s mem.

We met people. In every and in no way different. People who, just like us, wonder what is right and wrong, how to educate their children, how to help a friend in need; people who are fighting for the future of their families and children. And who, at this moment, need our support.

Although the Balkan route was officially "closed" in March this year, a number of people still take it.

Around 150 refugees arrive daily to Belgrade. Some of them continue their journey within a few hours, others decide to stay in Serbia for several days. Most come from Macedonia, a lot of them have already spent several months in Idomeni, Greece. Some still come through Bulgaria.

They usually arrive in Belgrade with smugglers, sometimes by bus or taxi, and often on foot, walking for hours through Macedonia/Bulgaria and Serbia.

Upon arrival in Belgrade, in the Asylum Centre Krnjača, they can get accommodation, food and medical help. If they express the intention to seek asylum, they can stay in Krnjača during  the asylum procedure. However, if they are not registered, they can stay overnight with the obligation to register the next day.

If they are for some reason unable to go to the Asylum Centre, they will stay in the street, with neither a place to sleep over, nor an accessible public toilet. They are provided with food, important information and basic necessities, such as clothing, footwear and hygiene packages by humanitarian organizations. For health assistance, they can address medical organizations and institutions present in the vicinity of the bus and railway stations.

If they arrive during the night, refugees don’t have provided transportation to the Asylum Centre. They have no place to spend the night, while sleeping on the grass in parks around bus and train stations is prohibited. Sometimes up to 150 new people arrive in the course of one night only. Organizations that are present in the field can only help a certain number of people, giving them dry food packages and helping them to get to the Asylum Centre.

Among the groups coming to Belgrade, there are families with small children, single mothers with infants, the elderly and sick. Those who are particularly exposed to various risks are unaccompanied minors who often come in groups formed on route.

Their stories, life experiences and the difficulties they face are different. However, they all have one thing in common – they have all left their homes in search of a new, safe place to live.

On the eve of June 20^th, the World Refugee Day, in the coming days we want to share with you who are the people we meet, what they did, what they were thinking about and who they were "before", but also to share where they go, what they hope for and what is the desired “after” for them. How similar we are and how different; how much and what we have learned about each other and from each other.

There is an urgent need for European States to act to prevent children from growing up without a nationality. The majority of Europe’s stateless kids were born in Europe; many of them would not remain stateless today if all European countries had in place legal safeguards against childhood statelessness as required by international law. The shocking reality is that more than half the countries in Europe are failing to meet these obligations, thereby denying a nationality to thousands of children across the continent.

We urge all European states to: 

• Accede to the UN 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness;
• Address gaps in their laws and practice in order to implement comprehensive safeguards to identify and grant nationality to children born on their territory who would otherwise be stateless, as soon as possible after birth; 
• Ensure access to free and universal birth registration in order to prevent statelessness.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT:

Most people take their nationality for granted; they do not think about how or why they got it, what it allows them to do or what would be different if they had none.

Sadly, this is not the case for thousands of children in Europe who are growing up without nationality. For those affected this can mean missing out on healthcare, education and other opportunities, as well as result in unfulfilled potential and a sense of never quite belonging. It brings hardship and anguish to children and their parents alike. 

There are a number of a ways in which a child could end up without a nationality. Sometimes statelessness is passed on from stateless parents to their children. Other times, a child fails to acquire a nationality at birth because of a conflict between different nationality laws, or may not be able to prove their legal identity because they were not issued with a birth certificate. Statelessness can also be a problem for some children born to refugees. It can also result from international surrogacy, adoption or where children have been abandoned at birth.

No child should be left without nationality. It is a problem that is entirely solvable. UN conventions provide a clear legal framework to define and tackle the issue. By establishing safeguards in nationality laws to ensure that any child born on the territory of a country will be entitled to nationality if they would otherwise be left stateless, we could end childhood statelessness within a generation!  

Sign the Petition here. 

See the animation about the life of stateless children here.

The problem of child, early and forced marriages shall not be narrowly observed and only within the frameworks of tradition and customary law. It is much broader and must be approached from several aspects. The problem of child, early and forced marriages goes into all aspects of child development, interferes with it, and denies the possibility of growing up in an environment where there is a choice. It is therefore necessary to mobilize all actors operating in the field of protection of children's rights, as well as their active involvement in this issue by establishing intersectoral cooperation. 

In May 2016, Praxis held municipal meetings in Leksovac and Pozarevac, aimed at prevention and elimination of child, early and forced marriages. The meetings were organized as part of the activities on the project “Legal Assistance to Persons at Risk of Statelessness in Serbia”, funded by UNHCR.

The goal of the meetings was to gather all the relevant actors in this topic at the local level, so that together we can try to identify possible solutions to the problem of child, early and forced marriages. A total of 78 representatives of social welfare centre, police, prosecution, judiciary, educational and health institutions, as well as Roma health mediators, teaching assistants and activists, took part in the meetings. The meetings were organized in a way to provide an overview of the problem of child, early and forced marriages in Serbia, the region and the world, with special reference to local and international regulations governing the rights of the child, marriage and family relations, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the authorities to prevent the neglect of children and violence against children, on the one hand, as well as through an interactive approach to the subject, and examples of good practice, to come up with the policy proposal that would lead to the prevention and elimination of children, early and forced marriages.

The participants showed a noticeable interest in the topic, irrespective of whether they have come across the problem in their work so far or not. Interactive discussion imposed the conclusion on the necessity of intersectoral cooperation, which formally could be realized by concluding agreements on cooperation at local level among all the actors needed to effectively provide protection to children from abuse and neglect. Preventive work with parents in the form of educational and councelling sessions, as the key decision makers, a greater visibility of the problem of child, early and forced marriages, among the Roma population as well as among the general public and decision makers, are just some of the recommendations that arose as a result of municipal meetings.

In the second half of the year, Praxis will organize follow-up workshops and community meetings, aimed at additionally empowering the Roma community and competent actors at the local level, and at having the insight into the short-term results of previously held workshops and community meetings. 

See also: Praxis Held Workshops on Prevention and Elimination of Child, Early and Forced Marriages

Today, on 8 June 2016, the Law on Administrative Procedure, which should allow to the citizens to exercise their rights before the state bodies in a much easier way and with considerably less expenses, started being implemented. 

Specifically, the provisions of the Law on Administrative Procedure envisages the obligation of the authorities to inspect, obtain and process data on which the official records are kept. Practically, it means that when applying for the request for issuance of, for instance, an identity card or a passport, citizens will no longer need to enclose registry books certificates, or in case of applying for social welfare benefits, they will no longer have to obtain two-digit number of documents issued by various offices and bodies. All the evidence will have to be collected by the authorities before which the procedure is conducted, and a misdemeanor responsibility has been prescribed for an official who fails to collect the evidence ex officio. Thus, an official who fails to inspect or obtain data from another authority, or fails to deliver the requested data to another body within 15 days, will be fined a total of 5,000-50,000 RSD.

It should be noted that so far the Law on General Administrative Procedure has provided for the obligation of public officials to obtain information and evidence, but unfortunately this obligation has been rarely practiced. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether the highlighting of this commitment and its positioning in the basic principles of an administrative procedure and misdemeanor responsibility of officials, will ensure the uniform application of the law.

No child chooses to be born as legally invisible, go into exile, become a victim of exploitation and live without being able to exercise his/her rights. Children do not choose poverty, violence, abuse, discrimination.

On the International Day for Protection of Children, we remind that in Serbia...

...  children without a name and an address are still being born, and the system does not recognize them because they are not registered in birth registries, even though the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international treaties ratified by Serbia, guarantee that every child will be registered right after birth and have the right from birth to a name and the right to acquire nationality!

 ... despite binding national and international regulations that prohibit discrimination on all grounds, children with disabilities and developmental delays, especially Roma children, are facing discriminatory behavior and segregation in the education system!

That...

... child, early and forced marriages are the reality for many Roma children, the reality that deprives them of the normal development and the possibility of growing up in an environment where there is a choice.

… children on the move during migration are exposed to multiple risks. The lack of the system for monitoring their position and movement exposes them to the dangers of human trafficking, violence and exploitation.

Children do not choose the environment in which they will be born and protection of their rights is the exclusive responsibility of us - the adults, who by our daily choices create possibilities and opportunities that the environment offers to them.

On the International Day for Protection of Children, we point out that the improvement of the circumstances in which children live and grow, especially children belonging to vulnerable groups, requires a daily commitment, and therefore we call upon the authorities to respect national and international laws and treaties and ensure that every child equally enjoys the rights he/she is entitled to by birth. 

In the period from 16-18 May, Praxis participated in a three-day workshop “Women on the Move” in Istanbul, organized by UN Women and Oxfam. At the workshop, the organizations active in the camps in the Middle East and in the “Route of Western Balkans” exchanged their experience in the field work with refugees, discussed about the problems of the refugee women and possible solutions, with an aim to empower the women to take an initiative over their lives. With concrete examples from the practice, the participants discussed about the causes of the refugee crisis, about the wartime and how it causes the current refugee wave, and how their effects, due to the lack of infrastructure, health care and education, would be the cause of the migrations for many years. 

One of the key topics was the problem of human trafficking, actually the risk of trafficking in a situation when the passage of refugees following the closure of the Route of Western Balkans was called irregular. In this respect, we talked about the possibilities of obtaining the asylum and temporary international protection in the countries on the route. The participants also discussed about the challenges of the cultural mediation in the transit countries, lack of information of refugees about their rights in the transit countries and accessibility of governmental and non-governmental organizations providing assistance to refugees, especially those which are highly specialized in providing assistance to women.  

The result of this workshop is the joint statement of the present organizations addressed to the currently held World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, with conclusions that there is an urgent need to work on elimination of the causes of displacement, that safety of women must be strengthened and gender-based violence prevented, as well as to ensure the participation of women in conflict prevention. Also, an agreement was reached to continue the intensive work on these issues, by monitoring and cooperating within the new regional coalition of civil society organizations and women's organizations, unless women on move regained their rights and dignity.

This week, for the first time after four years, a ten-year girl with severe sight impairment goes to school by a vehicle provided by the Municipality of Smederevska Palanka. Head of the Municipal Administration promised that the Municipality will provide a driver and a vehicle that would take the girl to school and back every day throughout the school year.

We remind that the girl was born with severe sight impairment and that over the past four years, ever since she started the primary school, her parents have been trying to persuade the Municipality of Smederevska Palanka to provide her the transportation to and from school, which is the obligation of each municipality according to the Law on the Fundamentals of the Education System. The Municipality of Smederevska Palanka has been unsuccessfully reminded of this legal obligation over the past years by the School Inspection, the Ombudsman and the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, which in 2015 found that the Municipality shall take all necessary measures to ensure the transportation to the girl. 

As the Municipality failed to act upon the Commissioner’s recommendation, in November 2015 Praxis filed a lawsuit for establishing of discrimination against the Municipality of Smederevska Palanka which by denying the right to transportation to and from school to the girl also denies her the right to education. On the basis of the above-stated lawsuit, the Supreme Court in Belgrade issued a judgment in April 2016 and established that the Municipality acted discriminatory towards the girl as it rejected to provide the transport to school, violating thus the principle of equality prescribed by the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, and provisions of the Law on Prohibition of the Discrimination in Education.    

With the provided transportation, the continuation of education would be significantly facilitated to the girl. However, the access to school is just one of the steps towards the exercise of the right to education. Quality education and respect for the principle of equality means much more – along with the transportation, the textbooks in Braille alphabet, as well as a qualified personal assistant, should be also available to the girl.