Since March 9th, 2016, when European leaders announced that the so-called "Balkan route" was closed, and with it any possibility of legal crossing across its borders, thousands of refugees and migrants have been stranded in the middle of their way to the European Union. In the case of Serbia, where at the end of August a total of 103,585 migrants and refugees had passed by according to UNHCR reports, the number of people remaining in the country and the time they spend there has continued to increase. If before the closure of the borders, there were around a thousand migrants and refugees in Serbian territory, now they surpass the 7 thousand according to the last report of 2016.
This has been further influenced by the strengthening of border control on the Hungarian side of it´s border with Serbia, following the passage of a law in July 2016 by the Hungarian Parliament that legalize extrajudicial push-back of asylum-seekers up to 8 km inside of the country.
Considering that the capacity of the asylum camps in Serbia is limited, in addition to the fact that many migrants and refugees refuse to go to the asylum camps to avoid being registered, many of them remain on the streets for as long as they are in transit through the country, living in precarious conditions and seeing their basic needs assisted by different NGOs and volunteers.
In this photographic work I document the situation of those migrants and refugees present in Serbia in August 2016.
