Subotica, Serbia, 26/01/18

Families from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria have found themselves trapped along the borders of the European Union in Serbia.

The European Union member states of Croatia and Hungary have recently tightened their borders with the backing of Brussels, in order to stem the flow of illegal migration into the EU. The refugee crisis has put increased pressure on EU member states to speed up their asylum application procedures and also to facilitate a new influx of people fleeing conflict in the Middle East.

Ali Rezili from Afghanistan brought his young family from Iran where they faced minority persecution and a difficult economic situation causing them to flee to Europe. Ali and his family have found themselves stuck in Serbia’s overloaded asylum processing system for more than a year and a half.

Currently Hungary are only accepting 10 refugees per day to pass into their country and on to the next stage in their journey to Europe. The tightened migration process in Hungary has led to a large build up of refugees applying for EU asylum from countries outside the EU, primarily Serbia.