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Europe’s refugee crisis
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Migrants queue for food in an abandoned factory in the western Serbian town of Sid, near Serbia's border with European Union member Croatia, on Monday, December 18, 2017. Several hundred migrants are camping along Serbia's borders, exposed to harsh winter weather and sleeping rough in makeshift shelters as they push on with their desperate bid to reach western Europe. Photo: AP

Migrants sleep rough in wintry weather on Serbia’s border hoping to cross into the EU

Several hundred migrants were camping along Serbia’s borders on Monday, sleeping rough in makeshift shelters from the cold as they look for a chance to cross into neighbouring European Union countries.

Amid biting wind and freezing temperatures, the migrants huddled around small fires in an abandoned factory near Croatia’s border, as aid groups distributed food and warm drinks.

“These people continue to stay outside in very inhumane and unsafe conditions … There is no clear access to water or sanitation facilities,” said Andrea Contenta, a humanitarian affairs adviser in Serbia for Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Contenta added that while officials have closed off the so-called Balkan route leading from Turkey to Greece or Bulgaria, and on to Macedonia and Serbia migrants still use it to cross illegally and face dangers.

Migrants get warm by a campfire in an abandoned factory in the western Serbian town of Sid, Serbia. Photo: AP

“We cannot continue to say that the Balkan route is closed,” he insisted. “We have to acknowledge that people are still (moving) along the Balkans, and we need to find the way to avoid” putting them at risk.

Though numbers of migrants in the Balkans have been reduced, Serbian officials said about 300 to 400 people have been staying out in the open, along with some 4,000 who are in asylum centres hoping to move on to wealthier European countries.

Thousands of people have been stranded since the March 2016 closure of the Balkan route.

Many migrants have since tried repeatedly to cross the borders with Croatia or Hungary, but have been pushed back to Serbia by police in those countries or have been stopped by a barbed-wire fence at Hungary’s border.

Migrants queue for food in an abandoned factory in Serbia. Photo: AP

Forced to cross the borders illegally in most cases, migrants have turned to smugglers to guide them across.

Wrapped in woollen blankets, caps and shawls, some of the migrants camping on Monday held their feet above the fire to keep warm. Others tried to wash mud off their shoes as aid workers brought water to the makeshift shelter.

Ahmed Alloui, 20, from Algeria, said “there is bad life” back home and he wants to find a peaceful country where he can have a future.

“We are looking for better life,” he said.

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