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These days in Serbia the humanitarian tragedy of the people from
Middle East and North African countries desperately fleeing their
homes got an additionally inhuman proportion. Hundreds of men, women
and children are still left without a proper shelter because the
government, the Commissariat for Refugees and other institution
failed to act in due time.
A normal person could not but be shocked by the
scenes shot at the location where the government tried to
accommodate those unfortunate people: the asylum seekers were
“welcomed” with locals’ paranoia. Locals who refused to have “alien”
and “different” people in their vicinity showed how deep their
xenophobia was and how little human solidarity was left in them. They brutally manifested total absence of empathy for people in
trouble, not even refraining from violence – they torched a barrack
housing asylum seekers in Obrenovac.
Forced to react against such incidents, the
government decided to shelter the asylum seekers in Sandzak
municipalities. This unfortunately indicates that people in Central
Serbia are not only xenophobic but also Islamophobic, something for
which Serbia’s political and intellectual elite are to be called to
account.
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
hopes that the asylums seekers would be treated hospitably in
Sandzak and stay there until they set themselves for their final
destinations as inasmuch as possible dignified people.
We also hope this human drama would prompt
Serbia’s government and other relevant institutions to take timely
measures against such humiliating scenes in the future.
International covenants this country has signed make them duty-bound
to react in a proper manner. Moreover, Serbia is also bound by
morality considering numbers of its citizens and others from the
region who have enjoyed hospitality of various countries for years
since 1990s. |
