APC: Over 4,500 Migrants in Camps, Outside 1,000 or More

Migrants (Beta/Sasa Djordjevic)

Rados Djurovic, the executive director of the Asylum Protection Center (APC), said in Belgrade on June 15 that APC records indicate that currently over 4,500 migrants are residing in camps operated by the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, while at least another 1,000 are staying elsewhere.

Djurovic told BETA that the majority of migrants that are not in Commissariat camps are staying in Vojvodina, particularly along the borders with Croatia, Hungary and Romania – countries, Djurovic recalled, that are known to have “illegally pushed back” migrants into Serbia.

“Aside from [migrants staying along the borders in Vojvodina], a certain number are housed in private accommodations – hidden and often handled by people smugglers and traffickers who help them cross the border and reach the EU, frequently at the cost of great sacrifices, exploitation and, at times, even imperiling their very lives,” the APC director stated.

Djurovic further said that many migrants “seek out smugglers to help them successfully reach the West.”

The APC head concluded by underlining that “parallel to the wave of refugees from Ukraine that has hit Europe, there is a continual influx of migrants from Asia and Africa travelling along Balkan migrant routes, reaching as far as Serbia.”