Refugees, people who, because of their often unbearable suffering, have to pack their whole life into one suitcase. For them, home is something far away, from a previous time. Their fates are almost never talked about, and the societies that receive them often have a negative attitude towards them.
In the middle of the month, the news arrived: Italy has started to transport refugees and asylum seekers from its territory across the sea to the centers it manages in Albania, which is the first such action by a European Union country. The patrol ship "Libra" set sail from the Italian island of Lampedusa, and after a few days arrived in Albania. Sixteen men, citizens of Egypt and Bangladesh, were on board. It seems, a little progress in solving the problem of refugees.
Meanwhile, countries like Hungary continue their anti-immigration policies. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is loudly praising the plans of the German government, which is examining the possibility of asylum procedures being carried out in countries that are not members of the European Union. "We accept asylum seekers if they follow the rules in Hungary", emphasized Orbán. "If migrants want to come to Hungary, they must first contact the Hungarian embassy, for example in the capital of Serbia, Belgrade. All their documents are checked there. Migrants can enter the country only if the Hungarian authorities give the green light. Otherwise, no", he pointed out afterwards.
He perceives the Serbian capital as an ideal option for a stopover for those people who went in search of a better life.
Although far from perfect, Serbia's migration policy is significantly more humane than Orban's, and that, one could say, since the early seventies of the last century. This is the story of that.
ESCAPE FROM THE IRON CURTAIN
The first Asylum Center in Serbia was established in Banja Koviljača - a small place near Loznica, known for its spa tourism - at a time when Serbia, the region, and even the whole world were significantly different.
The building was built in the sixties of the last century. Right next to the forest, this hotel-like facility had an accommodation capacity of 84 people. The double rooms, comfortable but rather impersonal, provided comfort to generations of refugees from all over the world. The rooms - which have been empty since 2022 - had a wardrobe and a wash basin. The kitchen and dining room, although quite nicely furnished, were never used.
It was not the only facility for the accommodation of refugees in this spa. The capacity of the Center was not large. When a larger number of refugees happened to arrive, some of them were accommodated in the "Kučevo" hotel or the "Podrinje" hotel. Also, during the summer, an autocamp by the Drina was used. A little later, around 1974, the first refugees from Chile arrived in Banja Koviljač. They left their native country after the coup d'état in which the previous president, Salvador Allende, was deposed. In addition to them, asylum seekers from Africa also arrive.
Vladimir Jovanović became the manager of the Asylum Center in 1981 and remained in that position until 1984. In an interview with "Vreme", he recalls what it was like. "I stayed there from November 1981 to 1984 as a UN official. It was not the only facility for the accommodation of refugees. I was hired by a friend who worked there, then he asked me if I would like to replace him since he was about to move to Belgrade. I agreed and said I would be there for a few months, however, I stayed for two and a half years. "Working with people was challenging for me," says Jovanović.
At that time, Yugoslavia represented the crossroads of the Eastern and Western blocs. That is why some of the first people housed in this Center were those who tried to escape from the clutches of the Iron Curtain.
"In the beginning, there were mostly Romanians who came to Yugoslavia illegally. They were not families, but mostly single people, who were accepted by the police at the shelter for foreigners in Padinska Skela. Another category of accommodated persons are people who arrived in Yugoslavia legally. Citizens of Czechoslovakia used to come here for the summer and had permission to cross from Eastern Europe to Yugoslavia. Those people submitted asylum requests to us at the office and we interviewed them and determined whether they were refugees or not and then accommodated them", he explains.
The center in Banja Koviljača, at the time it was managed by Vladimir Jovanović, was an accommodation for asylum seekers and not a reception center. This means that people who had already been assigned refugee status came there. They were staying in Banja while they were waiting for approval to go to a further, Western European country.
"I was in charge of taking care of the refugees who were accommodated there and providing them with all the possible facilities they need for life until they leave the country. They had food, they were provided with health care, UNHCR covered the expenses. It was agreed with the state that these costs are not calculated as for foreigners, but are charged as for citizens of Yugoslavia. The children could go to the nearby school, however, because they did not stay long and did not know the language, this kind of help could not work well", says our interlocutor.
photo: m. MilenkovićSpa Koviljača, 2011.
LIFE IN THE ASYLUM AND THE DAYS OF PEACE
The inhabitants of Banja were mostly polite to the refugees. They accepted a long time ago that they live in a place where they can regularly meet foreigners, where unknown languages can be heard everywhere. Even if they wanted to, they had nothing to complain about. Placed persons stayed there for a short time, and they spent their time quite peacefully.
"There were no problems with the locals since most of the refugees had already been accepted. They knew that their destination would be one of the western countries. Many worked. They found illegal jobs with private individuals. It was not in the interests of the refugees to enter into conflicts; it would happen, of course, sometimes that someone would drink and cause a minor problem, but nothing more than that. People waited from three months to a year. It usually depended on the procedures at the embassies, and because of that waiting sometimes nervousness would follow", recalls Jovanović.
In addition to accommodation and food, the center also offered a variety of activities that brightened up the painful days of waiting and made them go by faster. Within the facility there was a large hall where various activities were held, such as English language classes. In the summer, when the days were particularly long and unbearably hot, people went swimming in the Drina. Despite everything, life went on smoothly.
The only thing these people were not allowed to do was to leave their place of residence. If they were accommodated in Banja Koviljača, they could not go to Belgrade without a special paper. This limitation arose from the laws of the time. In the end, the life of refugees was not the concern of the state, but of UNHCR, that is, the UN Refugee Agency.
"The SFRY signed the convention on refugees from 1951 and the protocol in 1967 and undertook to apply that convention, that is, to determine the status of refugees. However, she did not do that and then UNHCR did it for her. It was a gentleman's agreement between the socialist state and the UNHCR", claims Jovanović.
Almost four decades have passed since Jovanović left the Center, and he continued his career in Belgrade. Since then, many faces have passed through the Center, young, old, frowning and happy. The ones he remembers the most are children's.
"Whenever a child went further, to Europe, I asked him to draw something for me. Those drawings were on the walls of my office for a long time. The best feeling was when one of them called and said that he had arrived at the desired destination and that he was fine", says Jovanović.
WARS AND INTERRUPTION OF WORK OF THE CENTER
And then, the political ground of the former Yugoslavia, as well as the whole of Europe, shook tremendously. It was clear to everyone that there was no going back to the old ways. The traces of wars, social divisions and conflicts have almost left their mark on the walls of this Asylum Center.
Albanians started to arrive, and at the very time when the situation in Kosovo came under public scrutiny. The locals protested for the first time, says Jovanović.
"That was the period when Kosovo was a current topic and word spread that they were coming Kosovars. The people gathered and even one stone flew. We explained to them that these are not refugees from Kosovo, but rather Albanians who fled from Albania. However, they were eventually transferred to Titel", says Jovanović.
During the summer of 1992, the situation in the countries of Yugoslavia heated up, and the Center was temporarily closed. Refugees could not seek an escape from the war in a country that was slowly becoming a new theater.
August 4, 1995 came, the day when the military operation "Storm" took place in Croatia.
Refugees from Croatia started arriving in Serbia, it is not known in what number. They managed as best they could, they usually stayed with their relatives, friends and acquaintances.
However, there were those who had no where, how, or to whom to go, and they wanted only one thing - to hide. Then the doors of the Center in Banja Koviljača opened again. The accommodation capacity was greatly exceeded, so instead of about eighty people, which was the capacity of the facility, more than 150 people were accommodated inside.
A few months later, the Center was transformed into a collective center for refugees from the former Yugoslav republics, and it functioned that way until 2005.
In 2006, the Government of the Republic of Serbia approved the conversion of the facility into an Asylum Center, and in the same year UNHCR reconstructed the facility with EU funds. The asylum center started working on October 30, 2007, initially with mandated refugees under the protection of UNHCR, and received the first asylum seekers in June 2008, according to the Asylum Law of the Republic of Serbia. The handover of the facility between UNHCR and the Commissariat for Refugees took place on December 16, 2008.
MIGRATION OF PEOPLE AND A PARALLEL WORLD
One year after the handover of the facility, Afghans arrived at the Center for the first time. Journalist Momir Turudić then went to Banja Koviljača at the invitation of the UN Refugee Agency.
"By chance, I know the Farsi language, so the UHNCR asked me if I could come and be a translator. It was a new phenomenon in these areas. Where did the Afghans suddenly come from here? The number of refugees arriving grew. After a few months, the interviews that UNHCR conducted with these people mostly began to take place in Banja Koviljača. I went there for the first time and heard the history of the Center from Vladimir Jovanović, and I was amazed how, through the existence of that center, great world problems are reflected in a small environment, in a small place in Western Serbia", Turudić reflects.
After the arrival of people from Afghanistan, the capacity of the Center was suddenly insufficient. People from other countries affected by war and poverty, such as Iran, Libya, Syria, are also starting to arrive... "Talking to people from NGOs who helped them, I realized that something is happening that almost doesn't exist in the media. Then I heard that there are hundreds of thousands of refugees in Greece, that in the Greek port of Patria there is a huge maltene wild settlement with refugees who worked there illegally in jobs that Greeks don't want to do, such as agriculture and the most difficult physical jobs. Their ultimate goal was Western Europe, and they wanted to reach it by ships going via Italy", says Turudić.
Somewhere around 2008, Italy tightens the control of ships and the number of people, which was first measured in tens, then in thousands. It increased month by month. It was obvious that some new migration route had to be activated. This is how what we will later know as the Western Balkan route was born.
"It was not written or talked about, but even then there were signs of what we call today the Great Migrant Crisis. At that time, I saw it as a kind of parallel world, with some other legalities, which are very much reflected in the Serbian circumstances."
The new wave of refugees significantly affected the atmosphere in Banja. Newcomers start looking for a place to stay in parks, locals rent out garages, abandoned houses, basements and other facilities they don't use.
"Young, local criminals realize that these people are completely unprotected, they have no documents, and yet they get some money. Attacks on them are happening, money and phones are being stolen... The atmosphere is becoming unpleasant, but the incidents are happening towards the refugees. The media is still silent about it because news from a small town is not news for the whole country", says Turudić.
photo: m. MilenkovićSORROW AND ČEMER: Refugees on the road without end
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
The situation worsened further in 2011 when several Afghans were accused of sexually abusing a British citizen.
"The media immediately picked up on it, so the story of Banja Koviljača echoed throughout Serbia. Locals began to talk about not being allowed to send their children to school. It was a typical case in which this kind of narrative spreads beyond the country's borders. To this day, right-wingers profit from the fact that refugees from Africa and Asia brought crime and violence to those countries", he emphasizes.
Demonstrations and gatherings began in Banja, demands to close the Center. Misinformation spread... The refugee story exploded after years and years of being under the radar.
"I would not call these changes a migrant crisis, but a migration of peoples." The world is increasingly unstable. Nations on the move are arriving in Europe, and with them unnecessary panic among the citizens of European countries. I foresaw then that it would not stop, that it was a process that would last for decades", concludes Momir Turudić.
Starting with the Iron Curtain that limited the Czechoslovaks and Romanians, through refugees from neighboring countries, all the way to those from a world far away from us, they all wanted the same thing - peace and a new home.
There are no users accommodated in the center from 2022. Nevertheless, the history reflected in a small spa near the Drina is still there. The drawings of the children who stayed there are probably still with Vladimir Jovanović. The kitchen and dining room were never used, they just took up space. But those now empty walls will remain a testimony of a parallel world...
