Sid, Serbia,09/02/18

Following the closure of the refugee camp in Sid along the western Serbian border with Croatia, small migrant camps have started to appear. In an abandoned cement factory close to the border refugees and migrants from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Albania. The refugees and migrants camp around the town of Sid hoping to smuggle themselves into container trains destined for Europe.
The government run refugee camp was closed due to a prolonged campaign by the local residents of Sid.

Malina a local resident of Sid explained off camera why locals were unhappy.
“We are not anti migrant or anything like that. However we have had the lots of problems over the years and enough is enough. I have a young daughter and she can’t play outside and she can’t walk home from school because it is too dangerous. We have the railway here which makes them come here. The crimes have gone up and up, burglary, attacks, robbery and it’s intimidating seeing big groups of men walking around. We feel sorry for them but things could not carry on so the camp closed but still they come.”

The refugees and migrants camp around the town of Sid hoping to smuggle themselves into container trains destined for Europe.

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. Reports of police violence on the Croatian side are rife among the refugee and migrant populations across Serbia with some reporting beatings, robbery and illegal detainment.