One of the consequences the increased border control on the Serbian-Hungarian border is the creation of migrant camps or “jungles” on the outskirts of the border town of Subotica. The people living in these jungles – make-shift dwellings made of wood, tarpaulin and scrap materials, located in shrubs and bushes – are undocumented migrants, systematically persecuted by the police and marginalised by the rest of the society. Yet some have been living in Subotica for months, unable to cross the highly securitised border. Because of their number, they are increasingly visible – painfully so in the winter months, when they survived the Pannonian cold, snow and harsh wind outdoors. But the less visible counter-part of these informal jungles in Subotica is the formal prison, which at any one time imprisons several dozen migrants.

As part of the Open Access Campaign, a Serbian NGO RCM and Migreurop organised a visit to the prison where migrants are detained at the border. While we were not able to see the inside of the detention center and understand the conditions of detention, the visit was important as it illustrated the inadequate response by Serbian authorities to the increase of undocumented migrants stuck at Schengen’s moat. This response is a part of the externalisation of the EU migration policy onto Serbia: the border controls, systematic returns and detention at the border and chain-deportations are part of the strategy to keep migrants as far away from the EU as possible. The visit was important also as it was the first ever visit of the Subotica’s prison, by an organisation or individuals, interested in the detention of undocumented migrants.

The context of the visit — Open Access Now

Around 600 000 people, including children, are detained every year all around Europe, for the sole reasons that they do not meet the requirements for entering or staying “legally” on the state’s territory. Detainees are not only deprived of their freedom, but also of most contact with the external world. Besides, the possibilities for the civil society and journalists to see what is happening in these detention centers is often very limited. The Open Access Campaign calls for the right of civil society and journalists to access detention centers and speak with the people detained.

The Serbian context of the campaign is very specific. The increased number and visibility of the undocumented migrant population in Serbia is a phenomenon that caught Serbian civil society largely unprepared: there is not a single non-governmental organisation or a solidarity group that focuses on undocumented migrants rights, and while isolated attempts by humanitarian organisations and committed individuals exist, the popular rhetoric largely reproduces the right-wing xenophobic voice. Accordingly, detention of undocumented migrants is often confounded with the stay of asylum seekers in open asylum centers (in Banja Koviljača and Bogovađa) and while the latter issue received some public attention with the anti-migrant mobilisations last autumn and this summer, most people are not aware of the former.

Yet thousands of documented migrants are imprisoned in Serbia every year. The Serbian law allows for three types of detention.

Firstly, people awaiting deportation are detained in the deportation centre, called Prihvatilište za Strance in Padinska Skela. Article 50 of the Law on Foreigners specifies the maximum detention time in the deportation centre to be 90 days. This can be prolonged, but the total duration of detention should not exceed 180 days.

Secondly, asylum seekers can be detained in exception cases, as specified in the article 51 of the

Law on Asylum

“(1) establishing identity; (2) ensuring the presence of an alien in the course of the asylum procedure, if there are reasonable grounds to believe that an asylum application was filed with a view to avoiding deportation, or if it is not possible to establish other essential facts on which the asylum application is based without the presence of the alien in question; (3) protecting national security and public order in accordance with the law.”

The Article 52 specifies that the maximum detention time for asylum seekers is three months, but that in the latter two cases, this can be prolonged for further 3 month.

And thirdly, the biggest number of migrants imprisoned in Serbia is detained in district prisons (Okružni zatvor), closest to where they were arrested. When they are accused of illegally entering or staying on the Serbian territory, they are liable to pay a fine. Article 84 of the Law on Foreigners specifies a fine between 10 000 and 50 000 dinars (100-500EUR) for the illegal entry onto the territory and the Article 85 specifies a fine between 6 000 and 30 000 dinars (60-300EUR) for the illegal stay on the territory. In cases where the person cannot or does not wish to pay the fine, they are liable for a 3-30 days long prison sentence.

The Open Access Campaign in Serbia thus focused on sending two demands to visit the places of detention of migrants. First was to the deportation center in Padinska skela, which is under the authority of the Ministry for the Interior. The second was to the district prison in Subotica, which is under the authority of the Ministry of Justice and where we knew that a large number of migrants was imprisoned for entering or staying on the territory of Serbia illegaly. The demands were sent both by RCM, a civil society organisation, and journalists.

We received a negative a response from the Ministry for the Interior and were refused to visit the Padinska skela deportation center. RCM was allowed to visit the prison in Subotica – but journalists were refused the permission to accompany us. The visit included an informal interview with the manager of the prison, the head of the medical office and the prison’s lawyer, as well as an interview with one detainee. The visit took place in the offices of prison’s staff and we were not allowed to see the place where the migrants are detained.

Double punishment

Most migrants who are imprisoned in Subotica have been caught either on the Hungarian territory, or crossing illegally the Serbian-Hungarian border. Hungary has the authority to deport, or “readmit” people caught crossing illegally from Serbia, following the readmission agreement between EU and Serbia. This agreements allows for third country citizens, who do not comply with the entry or residence conditions in an EU country, into which they have entered directly from Serbia, to be deported back to Serbia. Thus Hungary deports migrants to Serbia, where they are taken to court, for entering or staying illegally on the territory of Serbia. Those who do not have the means to pay, or do not want to pay the fine are placed in the Subotica’s prison. They usually stay between 3 and 30 days.

When their prison sentence is over, there seems to be a bit of gamble as to what happens to them. There are three options, but it is unclear what factors decide what happens to them – this is decided by the Ministry for the Interior. The first option is that they are just let out, with a piece of paper testifying they served their sentence. The other option is that the police takes them to Prihvatilište za strance in Padinska skela, where they spend further time in detention and from where they are mostly deported to Macedonia. And the third option is that they are deported straight to Macedonia. As Serbia has a readmission agreement with Macedonia, it can deport there all third country citizens who have entered Serbia illegally from Macedonia.

The Macedonian-Serbian border has in the recent years been further reinforced on the Serbian side, following the pressures from the EU for Serbia to better protect its borders, in exchange for becoming an EU candidate state. This reinforcement occasioned a creation of migrant jungles in Macedonia. The number of migrants stuck on the border fluctuates – and one of factors that influences their number are the deportations from Greece to Macedonia. When the number raises, raids and mass deportations are organised, again a border away from the Western Europe.

The stay in prison is thus, for many migrants caught trying to cross the Schengen border with Hungary, a stop in the chain-deportation, away from the EU. Being caught on the border with Hungary can mean not only a deportation back to Serbia, but a deportation even further away from the EU, to Macedonia and potentially even to Greece. Their “punishment” is double: they are deported a couple of borders back, as well as being detained in Serbia.

Detention as a part of a repressive response

As the Adriatic route from Greece to Italy is becoming more and more impermeable, many people attempt the land-route through the Balkans. But they often found themselves stuck at the securitised Schengen border – and as a consequence, the number of undocumented migrants has increased in the recent years. Accordingly, the numbers of migrants detained in Subotica’s prison have also been increasing. The management of the prison gave us the official statistics during our visit. From 335 people imprisoned in 2009, this number rose to 826 in 2010 and to 1951 in 2011. In the first four months of 2012, there were over 600 people imprisoned in the prison. While the cells for migrants are designed to accommodate 10 people, it is very common that mattresses are added on the floor and that more than 10 people share a room. Besides, in the times when there were especially many migrants – such as in the summer months – the storage rooms and the sports hall were also transformed into cells for migrants. In those months, they informally requested the judge to give shorter sentences to migrants, to be able to accommodate everyone.

Yet even in the view of the staff working in the Subotica prison – which was not designed for undocumented migrants, but ended up mostly imprisoning migrant population – detaining migrants is not a good response to the increase of migrant population in Subotica. “These people do not belong here, they are not for prison,” they told us. Besides, even if they are detained and then deported, they mostly come back – they have had the same people coming back to their prison two or three times.

The staff described us the lamentable condition many migrants arrive to the prison: they are seriously ill, need medical attention, washing facilities, proper nutrition and a safe and warm place to rest. The prison provides some of these things – and in the opinion of the prison’s staff, especially in the winter months, being imprisoned is preferable to living outdoors on -20ºC, without warm clothing or adequate nutrition. The prison’s staff expressed a need for some sort of winter-time humanitarian accommodation in Subotica, where undocumented migrants could meet their most basic needs (food, shelter, medicine).

When staying in prison is better than being outside of the prison, this testifies of the bad conditions of migrants in Subotica’s jungles. While not imprisoned formally, they are still prisoners of their situation: they are stuck at the border, and cannot cross it, yet are daily under the threat of being blackmailed by the police, or arrested and deported a border back. While Serbia is a « safe third country » and has an asylum system — meaning that Hungary can legally deport back migrants, who have passed through Serbia — asking asylum is only nominally an option. But realistically, migrants stand a very small chance of getting a positive response. Since 2008, when Serbia adopted an independent asylum system, nobody got granted a refugee status, and only 5 people received subsidiary protection. But even those who got subsidiary protection, received no assistance in their integration: there is no Integration Act or Strategy in Serbia and out of the 5 people who got subsidiary protection, three people left Serbia in search of a better life.

Serbia is thus a place where migrants cannot and understandably do not want to stay. But, as the border is very difficult to cross, they are stuck in jungles, which become « prisons » under the open sky. Formal detention in prisons is only a part of a repressive response to the increase of the migrant population in Serbia. And it is precisely this response which keeps migrants prisoners of their situation: police raids, arrests, detention and deportations are tools used to maintain the status quo.