Migrant business booming at Hungary-Serbia border + videos

Locals in Subotica are outraged and fed up with the constant presence of migrants and people smugglers. Violence along the border has spiraled out of control.

The Serbia-Hungary border is facing a brutal migration pressure, with illegal migrants making nightly attempts to scale the fence into Hungary, and then move on towards Western European countries. 

As a result, conditions in and around Subotica are sometimes deplorable. Although locals have seen fewer migrants in the city center lately, they are increasingly seen moving around in larger groups as we head north from the center.

The migrants often set off with their bags full. They prepare to spend a few days in the forest near Makkhetes, and when the smuggler tells them to, they leave everything behind and head for the border.

Shopping trolley filled with bread in one Subotica shop (Photo: Magyar Nemzet)

Speaking anonymously to Magyar Nemzet, a local resident of Subotica complained that

he could not purchase any bread at the local bakery, because the migrants who had just arrived had already bought up all the bakery products.

The migrants tend to leave with jam-packed shopping carts even from larger shops. 

The footage sent to our editorial office is evidence that the migrants clearly have money. This video shows young men carrying their bags and luggage to the taxis waiting in line to be given a ride to Hungary's state border for an overpriced fare.

The migrants are free to do this in Serbia, as they can go in and out of reception centers, uncontrolled. No one ever questions any of the personal details that they provide, and nor can they do so, because they typically present no other documents. So, they can move around the Balkan countries with the legitimacy of the UNHCR's High Commissioner for Refugees.

Farmers in the villages around Subotica complain that migrants are trampling their crops and eating the fruits in their orchards. These wrongdoings, however, are dwarfed by the constant shootings that can be heard almost every night by locals in the Vojvodina town, something that Magyar Nemzet also regularly covers. Over the past year, these incidents have become a daily occurrence along the border.

In the last few days, for example, authorities have seen several incidents in Hajdujaras. According to a police statement issued on Monday, one migrant of Afghan descent died in a shooting and two illegal migrants were injured. No physical harm was caused to local residents. On Tuesday, this incident was followed by another round of shooting and explosions in the area around the settlement, which our newspaper also highlighted in a piace published on Tuesday night.

Following Tuesday's shooting, a member of our editorial staff rushed to the scene to see for himself the conditions in the immediate vicinity of the Hungarian border. Our newspaper found no police officers in the village a few hours after the gunfire and the explosions, by which time the migrants had already been picked up and taken elsewhere by taxi drivers. We saw this with our own eyes.

Hajdujaras, at night. Photo: Magyar Nemzet

We did not meet a single policeman on our way from the village towards Subotica. The locals also complained to us, saying they were dissatisfied with the work of the uniformed officers.

The Hajdujaras signpost by the road. Photo: Magyar Nemzet

There's a highway exit between Hajdujaras and Palic, which takes us to the northern part of Subotica. Here we often see taxi drivers transporting illegal migrants from Belgrade to the border with the help of people smugglers. In the hours after Tuesday's shooting, there were no police here either, and anyone could drive anywhere. In fact, we saw no uniformed officers or police cars in either Palic, or Subotica, not even in places where they used to stage regular patrols. 

The road leading to Subotica's center, at midnight. Photo: Magyar Nemzet

There is a real need to introduce stricter control in these areas that are teeming with migrants and people smugglers, but the locals are in despair. This is what one of them wrote on social media:

Let's not wait for tragedies to occur here in the village, gangs can clash at any time. We can only win now if we have sufficient numbers.

Shootings have been a regular occurrence in the past one year. Earlier, in mid-June, for example, a firefight lasted several hours near the Hungarian border on the Serbian side. 

Later, during a fishing tournament organized at a fishing pond near a local forest, people smugglers began shooting at each other with firearms, and the incident was filmed.

The migrants also tend to destroy protected landscapes and natural reserves, leaving piles of rubbish, opened medicine boxes, discarded clothes, shoes and phone cards in the woods. This is a regular site these days around Subotica, in the Vojvodina region.

Locals are increasingly afraid. Groups set up on social media are already talking about the possibility of organizing a protest to stop the influx of migrants. Local say they are alarmed by the fact that the shootings and violence are happening closer and closer to their homes and the residential parts of the city.

They aren't reassured by the fact that police have significantly stepped up their patrols on the southern side of the Hungary-Serbia border in recent months, at least this is what they claim. The Serb officers are stationed in the most frequented parts of the northern Bačka region, along the roads where most of the migrants are being transported by taxis. According to a police statement, authorities have apprehended 290 illegal migrants and taken them to back reception centers in the last few days alone.

The operation was carried out in and around the city of Subotica. According to the interior ministry, these operations will continue in the coming period. The aim of the uniformed officers is to ensure the security of all people, including migrants.

Migrant smuggling is big business, which is why there are armed clashes between smuggling gangs around Subotica. This is what experts told Serbia's N1 television channel.

Nikola Kovacevic underlined, that 

Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are becoming a scene for Europe's dirty work.

The expert's pessimistic prediction is that the situation will only get worse, as he expects the problem to spread from the border zones to the whole country.

Also speaking to N1, Klikaktiv's Milica Svabics pointed out that although there are reception centers, the illegal migrants returning to Serbia from Hungary and Croatia prefer to hunker down at illegal camps, from where they make regular attempts to re-enter the EU. 

It is extremely big business, because migrants pay up to six thousand euros to move on. Those without money become victims of labor or sexual exploitation. These smuggling networks are very strong, not only in Serbia but also in the migrants' preferred countries of destination, i.e. in Europe

– Mr Svabic said. 

He also explained that Serbia has not seen a decline in migrant numbers.

Their numbers has not decreased, it's just that they've been moved out of the cities. They are now in the forest, in voluntary camps run by smugglers, with the tacit approval of law enforcement officers. The first shooting near Subotica came as a shock, but it was soon followed by more than ten similar incidents,

 – the expert said.

However, the destination of migrants leaving Serbia is not solely Hungary. Law enforcement authorities of five countries have recently dismantled a multi-continental human trafficking network that smuggled more than 5,000 illegal migrants from Cuba to the European Union via Serbia, Hungary's state news agency cited Europol's announcement on Monday. 

As a result of the investigation, 62 people were arrested. The members of the network organized the travel of illegal migrants from Cuba in exchange for 9,000 euros, provided them with fake documents and then transported them to Serbia, taking advantage of the visa-free regime. According to authorities, the criminal network successfully smuggled around 5,000 Cuban nationals into the EU, pocketing around €45 million.

During the operation, Serb authorities detained two individuals, a man known as M. S. born in 1990, and another referred to as V. S., born in 1956. They are accused of having helped at least 53 illegal migrants, Cuban nationals, to reach Spain from October 2022 to April this year. They abused the system that allows Cuban citizens visa-free travel to Serbia, and then they arranged for them to travel to northern Macedonia or Bosnia-Herzegovina, and from there to Spain, their final destination.

During a search of the suspects' homes and other premises, police recovered four cell phones, a car, six hundred euros and three hundred dollars, as well as six invitation letters, two money transfer confirmations and two travel documents. These were temporarily impounded.

Migrants also make regular attempts to cross the Bosnia-Serbia border, but now always with success. Most recently, authorities found a body drenched in blood on the banks of the Drina river, which separates the two countries. According to Serbian press reports, the deceased could have been a migrant, perhaps an undocumented migrant who tried to enter Bosnia-Herzegovina with the aim of continuing his journey towards Croatia.

Cover photo: The Hajdujaras signpost, at night (Photo: Magyar Nemzet)