“No child got frozen or wet in Serbia,” Vulin says with satisfaction. Earlier, Jean-Claude Junker, President of the European Commission, expressed his fear that refugees will be freezing in the Balkans. Vulin did his best to prevent it happen. And he succeeded.
It was not an easy task with up to 8,000 refugees/migrants entering Serbia every day. In the beginning, some 200,000 refugees/migrants passed through Kanjiza, a small town of about 9,000 inhabitants). “They feared the look and behavour of these newcomers. Even their mayor did not have nice words for them,” Vulin complains. The government worked with the town administration and the locals and as a result, no incident occurred. The people of Kanjiza started showing solidarity and accepting cultural difference. Today, there ar no more refugees/migrants in Kanjiza, following the Hungary’s decision to close its borders. Today, the town of Sid, on the border with Croatia, is the new Kanjiza.
Serbia was the first country in Europe to form a working group tasked to deal with the refugee crisis. It is also the first country where these people get registered with fingerprints and photos. In less than eight days, the working group prepared the southern town of Presevo for receiving refugees/migrants crossing the border from Macedonia on their way to Western and Northern Europe. After a couple of months of work, mid-December Presevo a proper reception centre was ready for use. The heated rooms of the renovated hall can accommodate up to 650 people. The refugee centre, which was built with Norwegian support of 1.1 million euro, also comprises a dining area, regular and toilets for the disabled, shower cabins and rooms for mothers with children.
What makes Vulin most proud, however, is the way Serbian citizens have reacted towards the refugees/migrants, with empathy and solidarity. “They are treating them as human beings who have their rights, and so showed the unconditional respect,” Vulin stressed. . He believes in doing good returns good. “We don’t know what these children will become one day, maybe a president or another important person. If Serbia was the country where a young boy or girl felt well, and as human, he or she will remember it one day so it was worth it.”
So far, some 600,000 people passed the country. Now, 3,000 people are now entering Serbia every day. This is a third than earlier in the automn. It is assumed that winter has temporarily slowed them down. “Serbia is ready for a new wave of refugees expected to come with better weather conditions,” Vulin noted.
The next thing on the working group’s agenda is check the health of every person who gets in. “We will give them all a health record on who and when had examined them, what therapy he/she got, if any etc. so that when he/she comes with this card to Croatia, Croatian doctors know,” Vulin said, adding that they are now presenting this proposal to other countries on the route.
Registration still remains an issue. However, as the refugees/migrants often come with fake or no documents. Serbia has no capacity to verify these data. Nobody know who these people really are. “But stability and safety have been brought to the highest possible level,” says Vulin.
The minister is very grateful for Norwegian support of some 6.5 million euro to Serbian government and civil society organisations for dealing with the crisis. “Norway has no obligation to help us and they are still doing it. Norway has showed this many times, during the floods and whenever we needed it,” Vulin concluded.
According to him, there is some kind of special connection between Norwegians and Serbs, but he has no idea where it comes from. “The only problem we have with Norway is that the Norwegian handball team is much better than ours,” he adds smilingly.
