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Serbia's silent refugee crisis

Serbia now has the biggest refugee crisis in Europe, but nobody wants to know.

The Serbian Government, desperate to cover up its failures, ignores the refugees, leaving local authorities to house them in schools and kindergartens.

People who left their homes with almost nothing are stuck in squalid, smelly halls without proper places to cook or wash.

The local authorities cannot feed them, so their care is left to the Red Cross.

But the organisation is already overrun with 500,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and can only offer minimal help to this new wave.

Internationally there is scant sympathy for Serbs of any sort.

Even humanitarian aid is slow in coming.

The refugees are lucky if they get one food handout of staples like sugar, oil and flour a month. That supply lasts only a week.

They have asked for more food and for shoes and clothing for the children, but they do not know when it will arrive.

One family has been taken in by relatives in a small village house. Where four people used to live, there are now 10, including three extra children and a grandmother.

One single bed has to be shared by five anxious children.

The beds are wet because the children are uprooted and unhappy.

Nobody has a job, yet they insist on offering coffee and homemade brandy.

It is clear that the refugees have no idea what will become of them. The longer they stay the less likely they are to go home.

The chances are that the Kosovo refugees will become, like the Serbs from Bosnia and Croatia, a permanent burden on the Serbian economy and a reminder of Serbia's military and political failures.

Relevant Stories

Nato moves on 'KLA prison' (11 Jul 99 | Europe)
Russian troops deploy in Kosovo (10 Jul 99 | Europe)
On the streets of Serbia (10 Jul 99 | Europe)
'Mass grave' sealed off (09 Jul 99 | Europe)
Kosovo gypsies under threat (05 Jul 99 | Europe)

Internet Links

United Nations in Kosovo
UNHCR Kosovo update
Nato
Kosovo Crisis Centre
Serbian Ministry of Information

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