Senad Pirić, an activist for Tuzlanski volonteri tells us about the situation in Tuzla, a transit point for migrants near the border between Bosnia and Croatia.
As a journalist, Pirić started to write about the situation back in 2018, but then he became a volunteer.
“At the beginning groups of 20-25 people were coming, they used to stay here a couple of days and they were pretty much “invisible” to the city: volunteers offered them a place hostels, they were not sleeping in the streets.
In 2019, though, the number of migrants coming from different countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, Morocco) started to rise. And Tuzla is the first station they encounter during the journey between Serbia and Bosnia.”
“The migrants started to coming to Tuzla in 2018 and the arrivals increased in May 2019. It’s hard to estimate the number, but we can say there are about 500 people, 300 of which are camped around the train station, where Tuzla volunteers, despite the indifference of the local institution, manage to provide meals and support people. People keep arriving in Tuzla and, a part from giving them food and blankets, we try to treat them as human beings, to make them feel at home, regardless of their origins.”
“The population of Tuzla, continues Senad, is divided by this situation: some people understand it, but others can’t stand the presence of migrants here.
People stop here from a couple of days to 2-3 months, it all depends on whether they have enough money to buy the train tickets to leave.”
“Whoever allows these people to come here should be responsible for them. They cannot be abandoned for years, they have rights. For this summer, we expect more migrants to come and more problems as well. They should be hosted in warm places, instead they are sleeping in the streets, even in this cold winter. Having a place to stay would make things much easier and safer.”
Video a cura di Angela Disanto e Matilde Ramini.
