“Migrant smuggling is a major business which is why there are armed clashes between migrant smuggling gangs in the Subotica area. Due to the rule of law crisis at European Union (EU) borders the situation in Serbia will only get worse,” experts in the area told N1.

“Everything that is happening in the north of Serbia, and also in the border zones in the Western Balkans, is a consequence of the crisis of the rule of law at EU borders, and this was conducive to the thriving of organized crime in countries with rule of law deficiency. Based on the current European common asylum reform, according to a plan that has never been drawn up officially but exists, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will become the location for Europe’s dirty business since both countries will become detention centers. The situation will get worse because we expect the problem from the border zones to spill over to the whole of Serbia,” lawyer and human rights expert Nikola Kovacevic told the N1 TV programme New Day.

According to the data of the KlikAktiv center for development of social policies, there are 18 officially registered refugee camps in Serbia, which are managed by the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, yet the situation on the ground is quite different, said Milica Svabic from KlikAktiv.

“All the illegal camps are in the north of Serbia. After being beaten in Hungary or Croatia, migrants come back to us. Our organization has registered 36 unofficial camps. There was 600, 700 people in each of these camps last year. Having camps with so many people without logistics is unsustainable. It’s a huge business because migrants pay up to 6,000 euros to move on. Those who don’t have that kind of money become victims of labor or sexual exploitation. The smuggling networks are very strong, not only here but also in the migrant destination countries in Europe,” said Svabic.

She explained that, although it might seem like it, the number of migrants has not decreased.

“Their number hasn’t dropped, they have just been moved away from the cities. They are now in the woods in makeshift camps led by smugglers and it appears that the police tacitly allow this. The first shooting near Subotica was a shocking event, yet there were more than a dozen such shootings later on. Each time this happens just two days later we’re back to square one, smugglers are there again. They flee but they return the same day, and they all know each other’s turfs,” said Svabic.

The first showdown between migrants near Subotica took place on July 2 last year when one person was killed and seven wounded. They clashed again in the vicinity of that camp twice in the past two months.

“This shows that all that has been happening for the past two, three years has not produced a reaction from the relevant authorities. Things have gone too far, this can be viewed as organized crime. There are suspicions that there are links between the smugglers and some members of the local police, the Security Intelligence Agency (BIA). This is a transnational crime and it can hardly work without the local government’s support. In addition to this, we have no information from the prosecutor’s office. And in the end, the migrants are the ones who get the short end of the stick, then the people of Subotica, and then we, the citizens of Serbia in which the authorities are unable to establish peace, order and security, and ensure the protection of human rights for those who live in the border area, and that is devastating. This goes on and never changes,” said Kovacevic.

He explained that people in Subotica are not afraid of the migrants but rather of the organizers of these unfortunate events, but that people generalize things and that, in the end, the migrants are always blamed.

“A big problem is that the police do not communicate with the local population. Silence says a lot, and when the police do say something they play videos showing people who are kneeling and who are all presented as terrorists. This shapes the people’s negative attitude toward the migrants,” said Svabic.

No migrant policy adopted so far at the level of Serbia, Europe and the Western Balkans has produced results, said Kovacevic.

“The bigger the obstacles you place before the migrants, the more situations like this we will have,” Kovacevic stressed.