In December 2015, NRC-Praxis began implementing the Project “Emergency Protection, Shelter and Assistance for Refugees & Asylum Seekers in Serbia” funded by ECHO.  Activities include provision of information, shelter assistance and distribution of food and non-food items (NFIs) to refugees transiting through, or seeking asylum in Serbia.  Field locations are the Eastern border, primarily Dimitrovgrad, and Belgrade. Given that refugees were arriving day and night, teams have been working 24/7. Since the “Zagreb Joint Statement” of Feb 18, which signalled the beginning of the closure of the Balkans route, and the resulting dramatic reduction in refugee numbers to Serbia, the project has adapted where necessary, to respond to changing numbers and needs. So far has served over 6,000 beneficiaries have been served.

Download the report HERE.

Throughout March 2016, NRC-Praxis continued its ECHO-funded humanitarian activities in Serbia. Activities included protection through presence, assistance and provision of information, and the distribution of food and non-food items (NFIs). However, the closure of borders along the Balkan route and the EU-Turkey Deal agreed in March 2016 resulted in increased arrivals in Belgrade in comparison to previous months, with refugees entering Serbia via unofficial routes from Bulgaria and Macedonia. Thus, the field activities mainly focused on Belgrade where the teams continued to work 24/7, but Praxis also kept its presence in Dimitrovgrad until the end of March, monitoring the situation. In March, nearly 2,500 beneficiaries were assisted.

Download the report HERE.

The International Roma Day, 8 April, is the day when we celebrate and promote the Romani culture, but also the day when we remind of and point at difficult position of Roma women and men in society, and of the obligation to do more to improve their situation. Despite the improvements made over the past years, problems faced by the Roma women and men in Serbia are still numerous, and daily life for most of them still remains below the limits of dignity. The Roma are still discriminated in almost all spheres of social life, while the access to status and socioeconomic rights is impeded or completely impossible to them.

On the occasion of the International Romani Day, throughout this week we have been pointing at impediments faced by our fellow citizens, but also at practices by which such impediments may be alleviated or overcome. We have talked to Bajram Kafu Kinolli, Balkan Bob Marley, and, as many people are already calling him, the successor of Saban Bajramovic. We met Bajram, the front man of Gipsy Groove and peace activist, while he was facing numerous impediments to exercise of his own rights.

We wanted to know what this day means to him personally…

For me, the International Romani Day is the same as the International Human Day. And, every day should be a human day. The rights of Roma are for me the same as the rights of any other person. Every person deserves respect and decent life. And we cannot defend the rights of one person and neglect the rights of another. There is no respect without exchange, without a dialogue. Therefore, it is nice that there is a day when we pay homeage to one community, its culture and customs. However, if the spirit of 8 April fails to come to life on other days in the year, then even that one loses its value and significance.

Greater social changes are never a result of one-side effort...

All due respect of the majority community would not make any sense if we do not invest the effort to acknowledge ourselves for the beginning, and then take a responsible position within the wider community. As long as we accept the role of a victim, and sometimes it seems to me that it is the easiest for people to lull in that role and blame others for all the injustice happening to them, the situation will not change. The changes should come from the community itself. People within the Roma community must be united in the fight for these changes. But, if you fight for your basic existential needs on a daily basis, your power to stay consistent to some struggle, to take a stand and step up as a social and political entity and, most importantly, to hold on it….is very limited. Therefore, major changes come rarely. However, I believe that we all have to fight for our own place. Support is always welcome, but the engine that drives a change is our responsibility. We should not be those who people talk about, part of statistics that is always considered and pointed at, but those who talk about themselves and represent themselves and their community in their daily lives.

One of the song from the Gipsy Groove’s first album starts with the lines “To be the first, to be the last, in the end you are just a Gypsy”…

Discrimination and violence go along with vulnerability and weakness. The stronger you are, the stronger attitude and greater support you have, the fewer people dare to express negative attitudes and practice violence guided by hate. And vice versa.  When we started with Gipsy Groove, there were all kinds of situations…every fascist, every neo-Nazis, every nationalist would grant himself the right to insult, and leave offensive comments and threats.  As the bend became more recognized and after some of the unpleasant events I personally faced were publicly condemned, there are fewer such situations. However, the colour of your skin marks you. At the end, it is up to you which attitude you will take. You decide not to look back on the fact that someone looks back on you because you are different. This is clear to all people who face problems because they are different. Not only are the Roma discriminated. Discrimination is, unfortunately, present in all social spheres, it occurs along with vulnerability and that is exactly the reason why we all have to combat discrimination. United. Just like when we fight for the rights of all citizens.

“I know it’s hard to be not for the black and not for the white…but, people, wake up”

My statements are the loudest and most direct, exactly through music. Gipsy Groove was created with the idea of engaged art. Each song of ours is a message. Through music we promote the values we believe in. We call for understanding, solidarity and loudly condemn single-mindedness, racism, nationalism and beliefs that encourage hatred. But our story does not stop there. Sometimes we present Roma culture with satire, we make jokes about our own customs, because it is the dehumanization and victimization of what we want to avoid and gladly make fun of. Roma, like all other people, are not the worst, or the best. We do something well, and something don’t. And that is a characteristic of every man. We do not have to be perfect to be good. Nor should we be respected only if we are perfect.

April 8, 2016 should be remembered by the sentence...

Education. Education as empowerment. Education as power. As a voice. Education as a path to understanding. To skill. Education as an attitude. And manner. As a goal and a path to every good change.

The migrant “Balkan route” was officially closed on 8 March, which for many refugees from Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan meant that they could not move further from Greece. Nevertheless, the smuggling channels continue to do their work, and thus minimum 100 refugees per day find themselves in Belgrade most of whom do not even know in which country they are. In addition to the deadly tour, refugees are usually left on the outskirts of the city, and often most of them get lost. There comes Praxis, and organization whose mobile teams patrol the city. Praxis is a non-governmental organization engaged in providing free legal aid and struggle for human rights. Praxis most often inform the refugees about the residing conditions in Serbia, but most of refuges learn only from Praxis that most of them could not go further. 

The experiences of Praxis’ volunteers are different and we can hear most of them in media. The never know what awaits them on a certain day, nor do the refugee they assist. When it rains, the refugees come frozen, wet, hungry and hopeless. Only later do they learn that Germany or Austria are banned for them at the moment. Few of them want to remain in Serbia, according to Praxis. However, their duty is also to explain the conditions of asylum in Serbia and asylum center near Belgrade.

"Get in line. Here you are. Food. Clothes are there. Signature here. Thank you. Next. And so from country to country. I'm sorry I'm crying. People help us, of course. Just, no one has honestly asked me for long ‘how are you’ (Man, 1960, Syria).” This is just of the sentences that volunteers of Praxis hear almost every day. Praxis’ refuge teams coordinator, Mirjana Nesic, told us what else they face and how difficult it is no help the people who have been on the road for months.

It was raining, and despite March it was still very cold. You must have had a lot of work, but it was a challenge to "catch" you for an interview. Can you first describe how one of your working day and your work with refugees look like?

Simply, this is a job that seizes  and draws you in. We have been postponing this conversation for so long…Some new situation always occurs and requires exactly you to be in the field. I have been doing this since September, when all this started, because I speak Arabic and Turkish. I started by assisting and it drew me into one hundred percent. I have been at all border crossings and worked in the field a lot. 

How do you manage to find them all over the town? How many of you in the organization do provide assistance to refugees?

Our team is basically the most mobile and our activity consists of patrolling. There are 15 of us, and we cover the field in three shifts. Volunteers patrol in groups, and it is the only way we can help the people well.

How do you help them?

In addition to providing humanitarian aid, because people are torn, wet, hungry, we talk to them. But the first problems occur there, because smugglers fill their heads with this and that, and that they should avoid us, among others. There are also fears of police that are always present. And in such situations, you should help them as soon as possible, as they themselves would say what they need that cannot be seen, such as maybe medical assistance. We also try to explain to them briefly their rights in this country, since they usually do not know where they are.

The official decision of Serbia is that they cannot enter Serbia, but still they are here. What do you advise them?

Officially they can no longer enter Serbia, but at least 100 of them are coming to Belgrade. Their only option is to seek asylum in Serbia, and we explain their advantages to them if they are asylum seekers. But, there are also those who are not interested at all.

What is your strongest impression? You really encounter with the tragic human destinies.

We can rank the impressions daily, since every day prevails something new. What is repeated is the great satisfaction you have when you get someone’s gratitude and the fact that someone has left to you to resolve the situation and that he/she just trusts you. 

We are aware that both in the media and on the street, one can see the prejudice against these people. Could you briefly explain to our young audience what you have learned by working with refugees?

That actually creates your empathy for people, you delete all the other prejudices that are served to you in the media. Whether we like it or not, we are all exposed to it, but when you meet an alive person who has experienced it, you become aware of how you do not agree with the existing models we are overcrowded with. 

Taken from the website of Omladinski Radio.

Mirjana Nešić, Praxis Refuge Teams Coordinator, in an interview given to radio ORADIO talked about the problems encountered by refugees transiting through Serbia and how Praxis mobile teams helped them.

Read the interview here.

"The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents."

 - Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

European Network on Statelessness continues with the campaign “No Child Should be Stateless” aimed at raising awareness and promoting measures that would end childhood statelessness.

Registration of child at birth is one of preconditions for avoiding childhood statelessness, which is also a key component of  #StatelessKids campaign, but also a part of the UN action plan to end statelessness by 2024. 

We remind that at the beginning of March this year Praxis and European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), as members of the European Network on Statelessness (ENS), lodged a constitutional initiative to the Constitutional Court arguing that Serbia’s law on registers allows officials to deprive children of their right to a name and a legal identity by giving them legal cover for refusing to issue birth certificates. The law in question is a vaguely-worded provision that says registrars can delay registering the birth of a child in order to verify the information on the register.

#StatelessKids campaign and the initiative are part of ENS’s three-year pan-European strategy to end childhood statelessness. In addition, also as part of those activities, hereby we announce the upcoming #StatelessKids Youth Congress, which will be held in Brussels in the period from 11-13 July 2016. The Youth Congress will gather a group of 35 young activists aged 18-28, motivated to help end childhood statelessness. The participants of the Youth Congress will have an opportunity to talk about the statelessness issue with the leading experts and academics, UN agencies and Members of the European Parliament, as well as journalists, advocacy and communications experts on how to advocate for change.

This three-day event will be an opportunity for these young people to learn about the effects of statelessness and gain skills necessary to become Youth Ambassadors supporting #StatelessKids campaign across Europe

More information about the Youth Congress and application, at the link.