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Migrants' plight in frozen Belgrade

23 images Created 29 Jan 2017

Hundreds of migrants found themselves stuck in freezing conditions behind the central railway station in Belgrade, Serbia, surviving on one meal a day. Many of the estimated 1,000 migrants are escaping instability in Afghanistan, where a worsening war with the Taliban has sent record numbers of people fleeing their homes. Some are coming also from neighbouring mountain areas in Pakistan, where the Taliban threat is also present. They have lingered for weeks in legal limbo, unable to move north after European countries along the Balkans shut their borders. Some have been here for several months, exposed to severe winter temperatures that, at times, drops to minus 15 degrees Celsius. At the warehouses the conditions are deplorable. There is no regular access to running water, toilets and showers. The air inside is saturated with the smoke from open fires burning toxic railway sleepers, creating clouds of noxious fumes. The migrants have only the most basic supplies, like food and blankets, distributed by volunteer aid groups. Most sleep on the ground, wrapped in blankets and rubbish waste piles by the minute all around. The sound of coughing echoes constantly through the decaying buildings. Despite the attempts by the Serbian government to move them to an official camp outside the capital city, the majority refuses to leave fearing incarceration or deportation.

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  • An afghani migrant washes himself with water heated on an open fire outside a warehouse near Belgrade’s main railway station. Some days the temperatures here drop to -15 degrees Celsius.
    Belgrade_migrants_06.jpg
  • View of the abandoned warehouses in central Belgrade, used in recent months as shelter for hundreds of migrants en route to Western Europe.
    Belgrade_migrats_38.jpg
  • Two Afghan migrants chop wood near an abandon train wagon in central Belgrade. Some migrants opt to take over disused barracks and wagons left abandoned near Belgrade's main railway station.
    Belgrade_migrants_03.jpg
  • A group of migrants socialise covered with smoke around a open fire inside a makeshift shelter near Belgrade's main railway and bus stations.
    Belgrade_migrants_05.jpg
  • A young Afghan migrant stands a the door of one of the abandoned warehouses near Belgrade's main railway station. The large majority of the more than a thousand refugees living here, comes from war torn Afghanistan and neighbouring mountains areas of Pakistan.
    Belgrade_migrants_02.jpg
  • A young migrant sleeps wrapped in blankets in one of the abandoned warehouses in central Belgrade. Due to the extreme low temperatures typical of a Serbian winter, many migrants spend the days by the fire or wrapped under blankets.
    Belgrade_migrants_04.jpg
  • Cloths belonging to migrants are seen drying hanging from a tree near the old warehouses beside Belgrade's main railway station.
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  • A group of young migrants socialise in one of the smoke filled warehouses in Belgrade.
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  • Sadeq, a 13 year old afghan migrant, tends to a fire in one of the abandoned warehouses in central Belgrade, used in recent months as shelter for hundreds of migrants en route to Western Europe.
    Belgrade_migrats_31.jpg
  • An afghan man washes himself using water heated in plastic bottles thrown to open fire. The hundreds of migrants living in the makeshift shelters are deprived of basic sanitary facilities.
    Belgrade_migrants_08.jpg
  • General view of a sleeping area in one of the old warehouses near Belgrade's main railway and bus stations.
    Belgrade_migrants_09.jpg
  • A migrant tends carries a bucket of warm water used to wash himself in the early hours at one of the abandoned warehouses in central Belgrade, used in recent months as shelter for hundreds of migrants en route to Western Europe.
    Belgrade_migrats_32.jpg
  • Belgrade_migrats_34.jpg
  • An afghan migrants washes himself inside the old warehouses near Belgrade's main railway station. The thousands of migrants living here do not have access to clean running water or shower facilities.
    Belgrade_migrants_24.jpg
  • A migrant keeps warm near a open fire outside the abandoned warehouses in central Belgrade. The toxic old railway sleepers scattered around the area are been burned in bonfires used as main source of heat inside and outside the makeshift shelters.
    Belgrade_migrants_10.jpg
  • An afghan migrant tends a open fire inside one of the abandoned warehouses in central Belgrade. The air inside is saturated with the smoke from open fires burning toxic railway sleepers, creating clouds of noxious fumes.
    Belgrade_migrants_15.jpg
  • Belgrade_migrats_33.jpg
  • Sah Muhammad, a 30 year old Afghan migrant from Kabul living for the past 8 months in a warehouse near Belgrade’s main railway station in Serbia.
    Belgrade_migrants_27.jpg
  • A migrant walks by inside an old warehouse near Belgrade's main railway and bus stations.
    Belgrade_migrants_11.jpg
  • A migrant eats his meal in the frozen ground outside the old warehouses near Belgrade's main railway station. Volunteer groups provide a daily meal to the thousands of refugees living here. For the majority, this is the only daily meal they have access to.
    Belgrade_migrats_36.jpg
  • Abbas Khan, a 21 year old Pakistani migrant living for the past four months in a makeshift shelter near Belgrade's main railway and bus stations, in Serbia. As the majority of the migrants living here, Mr. Khan awaits the opportunity to cross the border with Hungary or Croatia so he can proceed his journey towards western Europe.
    Belgrade_migrants_12.jpg
  • A migrant walks through a frozen field near Belgrade's Ain railway station.
    Belgrade_migrants_13.jpg
  • General view of the old warehouses near Belgrade's main railway and bus stations, used in recent months as makeshift shelters for hundreds of migrants en route to Western Europe.
    Belgrade_migrants_01.jpg
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Paulo Nunes dos Santos

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