These men from Afghanistan arrived to Belgrade on January 30th, at 1:40 am. Our team met them in the close surroundings of the central bus station. One of the members of the group is a 16-year-old boy, six of them are deaf. Only one person in the group could communicate in English.

Their journey hasn’t been easy at all. They arrived hungry and frozen, after the days of walk. They were beaten and robbed along the way. In other words, they were broke and broken. We immediately provided them with the blankets and meals, but what they needed the most at the moment of our encounter was a warm shelter, a place to sleep over and recover - a safety place, at least for a couple of days.

At almost 2 am, one of the few places that could have offered them such help, free of charge, was Asylum Centre in Krnjaca. However, there’s a catch. In order to get accommodated in Krnjaca, one first needs to be registered and given a certificate stating that he/she is transiting to another country, or in which he/she is expressing an interest in seeking asylum in the Republic of Serbia. Our team immediately took the group to get registered, but earlier that evening the registration system had crashed and no person could be registered throughout the night. In other words, our Afghan friends were told to come back early in the morning. What happens in such cases? If you need a registration certificate to  enter the asylum centre and you cannot obtain it due to the system failure, what is to be done?

Well, what should have been done is that the group should l have been received in the asylum centre, as the centre also provides emergent shelter for those who for some reason cannot immediately register, as in the case of our Afghan group. In such situations, people who have been offered emergent shelter would have to go and register the following day.

But which cases are considered  as really urgent? Is being beaten, frozen and exhausted a good enough case?

In the early morning hours of January 31st, these criteria were not good enough. Ten men were not allowed to enter the asylum centre. It was around 3 am and -4 C. The day to come was still several freezing hours away. We placed the group in a waiting room of the bus station, which became their shelter for the following night.

The morning of January 31st arrived. Sometime before 7 am, our team picked the group up and escorted them to the police station. By the early afternoon, most of the members were successfully registered, and finally got eligible to ask for the assistance of the asylum centre and/or for the continuation of their journey.

We wished them good luck and flawless bureaucratic systems on the way to their final destinations. And in case the system they are about to face fails again, we truly hope that the fellow human beings on their way won’t.

In the meantime, we will continue to advocate and draw attention of the competent institutions to the bad practice in the field and hope that our efforts pay off so that another such group of people actually get the needed and guaranteed assistance.