Stories From Serbia: Libya to Serbia. “Those were the last words between us”
It was early in the morning in the western Serbian town of Šid on the Croatian border and nobody was around. The time was 7.30am and the refugee population were mostly asleep with the execption of a few beginning their morning routine. In a rustic, old coffee shop near the train tracks I stopped in and found a young man from Libya finishing his morning coffee. I introduced myself and asked if he had a moment to speak with me. After ordering a couple of coffees the young man was kind enough to share his story of how he arrived in Serbia. He wished to remain anonymous because he has not registered with any authorities in Serbia and plans to travel illegally into the EU then file an asylum application in his desired location. This account cannot be independently verified.
I have spent all my saving and a big loan from family and friends to get here. In Libya we do not really need to cross on the boat to Italy. One because we know it is dangerous and two because we can get a Turkish visa very easily. I just flew to Turkey then went to the south west and met a smuggler. It’s the shortest crossing by boat from Turkey to the Greek islands.
That was the easy part for me. I left Libya, flew to Turkey and then after 10 days I was on a Greek island. The islands were difficult to get away from because it seems until there are too many people, you have to stay there. When the island camps got very overcrowded they moved us from the island to the mainland and from there we can mostly move freely in Greece. I travelled with two friends and all of us speak a little English so we could at least talk to most people.
As soon we were transferred to the mainland we went to a camp south of Athens. My friends and I knew we wanted to continue the journey so it was best to head to the north of Greece and then try to cross Macedonia into Serbia. After Serbia we planned crossing Croatia, Slovenia and then to Italy where we apply for asylum and get our papers easily. Well that was the plan but now we are stuck here for the moment.
In northern Greece, near Thessaloniki, we were caught walking by the Greek police and sent to Softex camp. The camp was good because it warm, dry and they gave us decent food, showers, all that stuff. The camp was just tents in a warehouse but the winter is hard in the Balkans and it was October at that time. We had been travelling for three months at this point and the money had run out, we were tired, so the best option was to stay in the camp. We stayed in the camp for three months while we arranged money to be transferred to us.
The journey to Serbia was going to be difficult because it was so cold and the snow in January was very heavy. The smuggler said the only options were by train or in the back of a truck. One of my friends decided he didn’t want to travel in the winter because he thought it was too dangerous. He wanted to stay in the camp till spring and see what happens after that. So my other friend and I decided we couldn’t sit and wait anymore and paid the smuggler €500 and got taken to a truck one night.
There was so much snow but the smuggler told us it was fine because the driver wouldn’t notice anything. It was some kind of construction truck. It had lots of long bits of wood, tiles, bricks and other stuff. The smuggler showed us there, took back the plastic cover and we climbed in. I laid down between some wood on the right side of the truck and my friend squeezed in-between some stacks of bricks on the other side. The smuggler threw snow on top of the cover so it didn’t look different and the driver wouldn’t know we were there. The smuggler told us that the truck was going to Belgrade and would take 8 hours from Thessaloniki to Belgrade.
The smugglers always lie and this one was no different. The journey took 15 hours because of the snow and the driver must have stopped to eat or something. About 5 hours into the drive the truck stopped and stayed still for 2–3 hours. I have no idea where we stopped or why but I know the cold was terrible. A charity had given us winter coats and we wore everything we had but still it was unbelievably cold.
When the truck first stopped my friend whispered to me “Where are we, is this Serbia”. I laughed and just said “How the fuck do I know, keep quite or the driver will hear us”. We were both so happy when the truck started moving again but just kept quiet. An hour later my friend said “I feel sick, this is too cold”. I regret this now but I told him again to “Keep quiet and stay still”.
Those were the last words between us. When the truck eventually stopped I heard the driver get out and walk away, so I looked out of the plastic cover. It was dark but I could make out other trucks with different writing to the Greek letters. I thought this must be Serbia and anyway I was so cold I didn’t care, I needed to be out of that small, cold place. I jumped out and saw no one was around.
I called my friend’s name but he didn’t say anything. I went round to his side of the truck and lifted the plastic cover. His body was all curled up and his face was so white, it looked like he was sleeping but he wasn’t breathing and his eyes were closed. I shook him for at least five minutes and whispered to wake up. It was useless he had gotten too cold and died on the drive. There was nothing I could do, so I put the cover over again and just ran into some woods in the distance.
That was the worst night of my life. I was so exhausted after the journey and seeing him all frozen like that really upset me. The sun was rising as I walked along the outskirts of Belgrade. I’m lucky to be alive but I have had enough of this, I want to go to Italy and from there Sweden.
April 2017
