It is just after midnight when they arrive at the registration centre in Dimitrovgrad on Serbia’s eastern border with Bulgaria.
The 17 Afghan men are all exhausted after a seven-hour walk over the mountain that forms the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. Their faces, hands, and arms are covered in scratches and their eyes are bloodshot from fatigue.
Restrictions on media freedom, unpunished violations by officials and alleged violence by police continued to be problems in south-east European countries in 2020, said a new US State Department report.
The US State Department’s 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which was published on Tuesday, warned that countries in the Balkans and south-east Europe have continuing problems with media freedom, censorship and violence against journalists, while officials are not being sanctioned for rights violations.
A vessel with around 400 people on board is adrift between Greece and Malta and is taking on water, support service Alarm Phone said Sunday, after a sharp rise of migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.
Changes in the Balkan illegal migration route. Toward a resumption of the flows?
Numerous signals point out how that the Balkan route is not entirely closed and that its potential role of illegal access to Europe is still relevant. Due to the geopolitical position of the region, it flows to Europe irregular migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. A key role in controlling this corridor is played by Turkey, which is partially capable of fine-tuning these flows with a liberal policy towards migrants and refugees coming from Muslim countries and a laissez faire approach toward their smuggling out of the country. This produces a net strategic return for Ankara.
Ahead of the war crimes trial of ex-President Hashim Thaci and three other former guerrilla leaders, there is widespread distrust of the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers, which many Kosovo Albanians see as biased.
Rimland or “coastal zone” is the main point of collision of geopolitical forces. For the geopolitics of the Sea, the ability to deter the forces of the Land from their presence in the coastal zone of the Rimland is of primary importance. Since its founding in 1949, the NATO alliance has been systematically expanding and seeking to establish control over the sea areas in order to weaken the land, guided by the “anaconda” principle, which was formulated by the American admiral and classic of “maritime” geopolitics Alfred Mahan. Its essence is to block enemy territories from the sea and along coastlines, which provides strategic superiority over the enemy, leading him to gradual exhaustion.
Serbia: Iran’s Entry Point to the Balkans
Iranian military activity in Europe’s neighborhood is not limited to supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine
Transforming itself from a net arms importer into a burgeoning arms exporter, Tehran is engaged in opportunistic behavior across conflict zones, ranging from Ukraine to tense, fragile regions, like the Balkans. Eyeing the Balkan weapons market, Tehran has focused on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sector. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is the main military actor involved in the proliferation of Iran’s indigenous drone program; as such, Tehran’s entry to the Balkan region’s drone industry opens the door to IRGC involvement across NATO’s southeastern flank.
Serbia is negotiating with partners from Azerbaijan on the amount and prices of gas that will be received through the Serbia-Bulgaria gas interconnection, the Ministry of Mining and Energy confirmed for Demostat .
With its stockpile of Soviet-era weapons, Bulgaria, home to a thriving arms industry, could be a key ally of Ukraine, which is trained on and equipped with such arms, in its war against invading Russian forces.
But with parliament now dissolved ahead of elections on April 2, the fifth snap poll in two years amid political uncertainty, the caretaking government is in no mood to provide lethal aid to Kyiv, appointed as it was by President Rumen Radev, who is known for his pro-Kremlin leanings.
In 2020–2022, Tunisian illegal migrants traveled through Serbia to reach Western Europe, as an alternative to the hazardous, more monitored Mediterranean route. This was driven by push factors in Tunisia, including deteriorating economic conditions and government acquiescence, and pull factors in Europe, namely smuggling networks and Serbian authorities looking the other way. While the route was sealed for Tunisians in November 2022, as long as transit states can use illegal migration to secure geopolitical leverage, such actions will continue.