According to UNHCR, at the beginning of 2017, there are about
seven thousand people stuck in Serbia. They are
migrants in transit on the Balkan route looking for better life
opportunities in Europe.
Nearly two thousand people, mostly young people from
Afghanistan and Pakistan, live in abandoned warehouses
belonging to the railway station in Belgrade, Serbia. About 60% of
them are minors unaccompanied by their parents.
Some of them have just arrived - tired and frozen - from
Macedonia or Bulgaria. Others were sent back/rejected by
Hungary and Croatia, after having suffered from the border police
violence while trying to cross the border.
In such abandoned railway station warehouses people are living in
inhuman conditions. They sleep on the floor, wrapping
themselves with blankets given by volunteers. To protect
themselves from cold temperatures reaching even minus fifteen
degrees, they light fires with railway tracks wooden beams, plastic
and waste of any kind, making the air toxic and
unbreathable. Most of them prefer living in the old railways station
warehouses, rather than moving to official camps for fear of being
expelled by the government, waiting for the Balkan route to be
opened again.
Vincenzo Montefinese is a freelance photographer, born in Taranto (Italy).
After studying at the Faculty of Physical Education, he graduated in 2015 with a master’s degree in photojournalism from ISFCI (Advanced Photography and Integrated Communication Institute) in Rome. His works and his pictures have been published on The British Journal of Photography, Internazionale, CNN, Roads & Kingdoms, La Stampa, Monocle Magazine and various other publications. His documentary work focuses on social, humanitarian and geopolitical issues.
Awards Vincenzo Montefinese is a freelance photographer, born in Taranto (Italy).
After studying at the Faculty of Physical Education, he graduated in 2015 with a master’s degree in photojournalism from ISFCI (Advanced Photography and Integrated Communication Institute) in Rome. He has received several international prizes awarded by The British Journal of Photography, Moscow International Foto Awards, PX3, amongst others listed below.
