At the start of 2017, UNHCR estimated that around 7,000 people were stuck in Serbia, with 1,500 people living on the streets, about 60% of whom were unaccompanied minors. In January, roughly 2000 of these people, mostly men from Afghanistan and Pakistan, were living inside an abandoned warehouse behind the Central train station in Belgrade. At the time, the government had banned NGO’s from supporting the refugees so they were left to fend for themselves with just the occasional support from local volunteers seeing the crisis unfold before them.
This work seeks to shed light on the struggle some are willing to live through to escape their past, the inhumane conditions the international community allowed and continues to allow for, as well as the worlds inability to effectively handle issues of migration and displacement. My time in Belgrade is one section of a larger project documenting the struggle between past and current refugees and displaced persons. Throughout this project I hope to confront our inability to protect vulnerable men, women, and children of both present and forgotten conflicts.
