The migration crisis in Europe has caused a drastic worsening of relations between European countries. Serbia closed its border for goods and cargo transport from Croatia, because Zagreb didn’t want to open its borders to Serbian cargo transport, RIA Novosti reports. Croatia is preparing an appropriate response. Zagreb demands that Belgrade protect their common border from refugees and redirect these people to the borders of other countries. Since September 16th about 47 thousand refugees have arrived in Croatia, most of them through Serbia. Croatia organizes their redirection to neighboring Hungary and Slovenia. The authorities in Zagreb stress that if these countries close their borders, Croatia would return the refugees to Serbia.
Slavenko Terzic, Ambassador of Serbia to the Russian Federation, says that refugees are not just a European problem, this is a world problem; and it is getting more complicated with every minute. “About 170 thousand immigrants have passed through Serbia in the last four months. They are coming from the Middle East via Turkey, Greece and Macedonia to Serbia. Serbia meets them very well, humanely, in the framework of international law and international conventions, which solves the problem of the migrants. There is the protocol of 1951, there is the 1967 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. We have shelters at the border with Macedonia, where the migrants are registered, get medical assistance, food, they are fed there, and then they go to Hungary and Croatia.”
According to the Serbian diplomat, the migrant crisis has become a big test for the effectiveness of the European Union. “Some EU members have not been well prepared or organized in order to respond to such a great challenge as that of migrants. I think that Serbia is ready to decide this issue along with other states, as it is now fashionable to say, in the spirit of European values. This means that all the borders should be open to the free movement of people and products, and that the treatment of migrants should be in the spirit of international humanitarian law.”
Slavenko Terzic recalls that the problem became worse when Hungary closed its border, and especially in recent days when Croatia closed the border, which caused big problems with the economy of Serbia: “Hundreds and thousands of trucks have been stuck on the border with Croatia. If Croatia doesn’t open the border with Serbia today by midnight, political, legal, and economic measures will be taken. I believe that Serbia should not be a victim of this problem. We fulfill our obligations in terms of international conventions and in terms of humanitarian law. We are ready to cooperate with all states and the EU as well. Although we are not a member state of the EU, we are acting as a member of the EU.”
