About

(srpsko- hrvatski u nastavku dole)

NO BORDER SERBIA is a network of people who share a freedom of movement perspective on migration issues in Serbia. On this blog we want to document the precarious situation of (transit) migrants in Serbia and thereby create a basis for possible future migrant support. The blog is also used to announce meetings or actions related to this topic and connect interested people.

Why we are doing this: The situation in Serbia

The Schengen border, separating the EU from the rest of Europe, is increasingly securitised, meaning that a lot of migrants find themselves in countries like Serbia, waiting for their chance to cross into the EU. Besides, since the EU is putting pressure on the Balkan states to become future candidates and/or subservient neighbouring zones, much of the EU migration politics gets externalised to and reproduced in the Balkans. States like Serbia, on the outside of the EU periphery, are now those executing the border controls and migration “management” one step earlier on migrants’ migratory routes into the EU. This in practice means that many migrants traveling through the Balkans are stuck in places like Serbia: unable to leave for longer periods of time, yet facing inhospitable and often violent treatment inside the country.

Migrants in Serbia who do not possess a valid travel document — and most people travelling without documents were not able to obtain — can be stopped by the police and arrested at any point. All of their activities are in this way illegalised: they are prevented from having a normal life, going about their daily activities (sleeping, eating, working etc.) without constant hiding and fear of police controls. Once arrested, they can be legally detained up to several months and deported back to the country they have come from. They have the theoretical possibility to temporarily legalise their status by asking asylum: but the largely dysfunctional asylum system leaves little hope they will get any “protection” in Serbia.

Because they have a highly precarious legal status (basically, they can be arrested just for being on Serbian territory!), they can be at any point exposed to the dangers of police violence, repression and even torture. And because they are completely without any rights or voice in the Serbian society, because they are totally obscured from the public view and marginalised from the social processes, the word of how migrants are treated rarely gets out.

Who we are

Behind this blog, there is a non-hierarchal self-organised network of no-border activists. Our aim, on the one hand, is to support migrants by organizing migrant solidarity actions and fighting against the border system and on the other hand to document the situation of migrants and police harassment in Serbia.

We are fighting for a freedom of movement settlement for all, against all border regimes and  “migration management”. As “the people with the privilege of having a passport”, we do not want to live in a world that divides people in those who have papers and those who do not. Dehumanisied society is a society that harms everyone. Silence means support of the current system.

As migration is transnational and also as the situation in Serbia is strongly connected to the politics of the EU and it’s member states, we regard the creation of a transnational networks as crucial for any steady migrant support project in Serbia. That’s why we are also working on a transnational basis, as activists living in Serbia together with activists based in other countries. We also want to link with existing networks of self-organized migrants and no border activists, as we percieve this project as one part of the struggle for freedom of movement for everybody, that takes place on many sides.

Freedom of movement as our political background

The commitment to freedom of movement for everybody is our political background. We oppose every form of migration control, every restriction, selection or “management” of peoples’ movements. We declare our solidarity with all migrants no matter what reasons they have to move.

Solidarity as our approach

The approach for our work is solidarity — in contrast to a patronizing charity and victimization of migrants, we believe in direct support and systemic changes. We do not believe in charity as a long-term way approach. Instead we want to emphasize resistance at the the structural level, changing the systems of power. Humanitarian aid organizations and groups are needed only because of the inhumane laws in place — so a focus on humanitarian aid helps to maintain the inequalities and racist opression of migrants by the nation state and its agents.

When we give out information and advice, or when we distribute material support (like food, clothes and medicine), we see this a form of temporary direct support, necessary only as long as the inequalities in resources and privilege exist. However, we have no intention to make people dependent on our work but rather aim to enlarge independence and possibilities for future common struggles.

The picture of “migrants”

The two main ways in which migrants are presented in the mainstream media are as a threat to security or as helpless victims who cannot speak and act for themselves. We reject these two presentations, as indeed any other “presentation” of migrants. “Migrants” are not a homogenous groups of people, with a set of essential characteristics and “presenting” them in any way is inadequate. What these people, termed as “migrants”, have in common is that they have been “migrantised”: the system of borders and migratory politics subjected them to the similar set of limitations of freedom of movement. But these limitations is something that people transcend every day, thereby gaining back their own humanity. Seeking what is share, what we all have in common and where solidarity lines can be built across struggles, is of interest to us.

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O nama

NO BORDER SRBIJA je kolektiv koji deli stavove već poznate grassroots No border mreže, a koja se bazira na ideji o slobodi kretanja. Mi smo  neformalna, neprofitna, nehijerarhična, samoorganizovana grupa koja se zalaže za slobodu kretanja i naseljavanja za sve, protiv režima granica i migracione politike EU, u okviru  šire antikapitalističke borbe.

Kao “ljudi s privilegijom posedovanja putnih isprava“, ne želimo živeti u svetu koji deli ljude na one koji imaju dokumente i one koji nemaju, u kojem je parče hartije  važnije od ljudi. Dehumanizovano društvo je društvo koje povređuje sve, a  ćutanje znači  podržavanje  postojećeg sistema.

Na ovom blogu želimo dokumentovati situaciju migranata u Srbiji, širiti solidarnost i  načine direktne podrške migrantima  na njihovom putu kroz Srbiju. Blog se ujedno koristi i za najavljivanje akcija i sastanaka vezanih za ovu temu, i povezivanje ljudi.

Smatramo da stvaranje međunarodnih mreža je ključno za podršku migrantima, iz tog razloga, mi takođe radimo na međunarodnoj razini.  Želimo se povezati sa postojećim samoorganizovanim mrežama/samoorganizovanim pokretima migranata i ostalim aktivističkim grupama.

Sloboda kretanja kao politička pozadina

Predanost slobodi kretanja za sve je naša politička pozadina. Protivimo se svakom obliku migracijske kontrole, ograničenju, selekcije, segregaciji ili “upravljanju“ kretanja ljudi. Izjavljujemo našu solidarnost sa svim migrantima bez obzira na razlog njihove migracije.

Solidarnost kao naš pristup

Pristup za naš rad je solidarnost – za razliku od pokroviteljskog milosrđa i viktimizacije migranata, mi verujemo u direktnu podršku i sistemske promene. Ne verujemo u milosrđe kao dugotrajan način pristupa. Umesto toga, želimo naglasiti otpor na strukturalnoj razini, menjajući sistem vlasti. Organizacije humanitarne pomoći i ostale organizacije su potrebne samo zbog nehumanih zakona, stoga fokus na humanitarnoj pomoći pomaže u održavanju nejednakosti i rasističkom ugnjetavanju od strane države i njezinih agenata.

Kada prosleđujemo informacije, ili kada distribuiramo materijalnu podršku (kao što su hrana, odeća, šatori, vreće za spavanje) mi vidimo ovo kao privremeni oblik direktne podrške, koji su potrebni sve dok postoje nejednakosti u resursima i privilegijama. Međutim, mi nemamo nameru da ljudi zavise o našem radu, već je cilj povećanje samostalnosti kao i mogućnost buduće zajedničke borbe.

Zašto mi ovo radimo: Situacija u Srbiji

Spoljašnje granice Evrope  se neprestano šire i sve više postaju “osigurane”  odnosno militarizovane, a budući da EU vrši stalni pritisak i uslovljava  balkanske države (kojima je prodata priča “o spasu” nakon ulaska u EU)  migracijska politika Evropske Unije se u potpunosti reproducira na Balkanu. Zato smatramo da je jako bitno da u što većem broju zauzmemo stav protiv takve politike.

Države poput Srbije, na  periferiji EU, sada su one koje izvršavaju granične kontrole i migracijsko „upravljanje“  korak pre EU. Ovo u praksi znači da mnogi migranti koji putuju kroz Balkan su često zaglavljeni u mestima poput Srbije; u nemogućnosti da napuste državu na kraće ili duže vreme,  suočavajući se često sa negostoljubivošću, nasilnim, i represivnim  tretmanom.

Migranti u Srbiji koji ne poseduju “važeće putne isprave” – neki nisu nikad ni bili u mogućnosti  posedovati iste – mogu biti zaustavljeni i uhapšeni u bilo kojem trenutku. Sve njihove aktivnosti su na ovaj način postale ilegalne: onemogućen im je normalan život i obavljanje svakodnevnih aktivnosti (spavati, jesti, raditi, itd.) zbog konstantnog skrivanja i straha od policijske kontrole. Jednom uhapšeni, oni mogu biti legalno pritvoreni i do nekoliko meseci i deportovani nazad u zemlju odakle su ušli u Srbiju. Teoretski imaju mogućnost da privremeno legaliziraju svoj status tako da  zatraže azil, ali u velikoj meri nefunkcionalan sistem azila ostavlja malo nade da će dobiti bilo kakvu “zaštitu“ u Srbiji. Zbog toga što imaju vrlo neizvestan pravni status (oni jednostavno mogu biti uhapšeni zato što su na teritoriji Srbije!) migranti mogu u bilo kojem trenutku biti izloženi opasnostima policijskog nasilja, represiji, krađi  pa čak i mučenju. Zbog toga što su u potpunosti bez svojih prava, i bez mogućnosti da se njihov glas čuje, migranti su potpuno zaklonjeni od javnog pogleda i marginalizovani od društvenih procesa, to kako se tretiraju “ljudi bez dokumenata“ retko izađe na videlo.

Slika “migranata“

Dva glavna načina na koji su migranti prikazani u mainstream medijama su kao pretnja sigurnosti ili kao bespomoćne žrtve koje ne mogu govoriti i delovati za sebe. Odbacujemo ova dva načina prezentacije kao bilo koju drugu “prezentaciju“ migranata. “Migranti“ nisu homogene skupine ljudi s nizom bitnih karakteristika i “predstavljati“ ih na bilo koji način je neadekvatno. Ono što ti ljudi, nazvani “migrantima“ imaju zajedničko je da su  “migrantizirani“: sistem granica i migracijska politika ograničevanjem njihove slobode kretanja  je stvorila skupinu ljudi, koju nazivamo “migrantima”. No, ta ograničenja su nešto što ljudi nadilaze svaki dan, i na taj način vraćaju nazad svoju humanost.  Naš interes je tražiti i pronaći  puteve solidarnosti koji povezuju zajedničke borbe.