Last year, six times more migrants and refugees arrived in Montenegro than in 2017, according to official data. They are housed in the Center for Asylum Seekers in Spuž, and Montenegro is a stopover for them in their efforts to reach the territory of the European Union.
We met Iraqi Mohamed, who fled the war in Iraq with his family, in a nearby community center where representatives of the Red Cross distribute food, clothes and other necessary items to migrants and refugees.
In Iraq, Mohammed was a successful farmer and owner of a property from which his family made a good living.
As he told us, the problems started right after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, when the new government put them on the list of ineligible because his father was an officer in the Ministry of Defense. His father was taken away in 2006 and since then he has not heard anything about him, and five years later two of his older brothers were killed. Since 2014, it has become even more dangerous for Muhammad and his family after the Islamic Republic of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) came to power in Iraq.
Mohammed decides to flee the country:
"When I made that decision, I took my three children, my wife and my younger brother with me. We headed towards a territory that was somewhat safer and which was then held by the Iraqi army. On the way there, in a column with other civilians, they intercepted people from ISIL and shot at us. I was holding my youngest child in my arms at that moment. I was shot in the arm, and the bullet pierced the bone and killed my child, in front of my eyes and that of my wife."
After checking their personal documents, Iraqi soldiers refuse to give them aid and shelter because, as Mohammed claims, of information about their father and his service during Saddam's regime. They go to Kurdistan, then to Jordan, Turkey and then to Greece. They continue their journey through Albania and arrive in Montenegro.
Where will he go next?
"My goal is to reach a country that will give us security, enable me to be treated and where my children will be able to grow up normally and go to school. I don't have a specific country, I just want it to be peaceful. After all the losses I experienced and family members that I don't know anything about anymore, I don't have the strength to risk losing this family that I have left," says Mohamed.
According to official data, in 2018, a total of 4.570 people seeking international protection were received at the Asylum Reception Center in Spuž, which is almost six times more than in 2017. According to the report of the Government of Montenegro, of the total number of migrants and refugees, 2.424 persons were accommodated in the Center in Spuz, and 2.146 in alternative accommodation. Most of them came from Syria, Pakistan, Morocco, Iraq...
We asked the head of the International Organization for Migration for Montenegro (IOM), Dušica Živković, whether Montenegro can financially, spatially and accommodate the almost six times larger number of migrants and refugees who arrived in Montenegro last year.
"These are not large financial resources. It is very symbolic and does not affect the state budget. The costs are the highest when it comes to housing those people who are in transit because they stay here for two, three or five days and then continue on. So, funds for housing are significant and the Government of Montenegro allocates money to take care of these people. The state still manages to do it within acceptable limits. The most important thing is that these people are not on the street," says Živković.
In mid-April last year, the Government of Montenegro passed a decision on financial assistance for asylum seekers and foreigners, according to which they can count on monthly financial assistance from 66 euros as singles to 126 euros with a family of five. A foreigner seeking international protection - a migrant can, in exercising the right to be accepted, be granted a one-time financial aid in the amount of 50 euros, while the acceptance lasts, the government decision says.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and other international organizations are helping Montenegro successfully deal with the current situation when it comes to migrants and refugees, says Živković.
"IOM mobile teams are constantly on the ground where they work together with the Montenegrin police and representatives of the Ministry of Interior. We provide support to migrants in transport. We are now working on strengthening accommodation capacities in Božaj where we will build a smaller transit center, i.e. a container settlement. In progress are preparations for the tender for the procurement of those containers. Everyone is providing help, and if the influx of migrants and refugees is greater, of course international aid will be proportionate to that," Živković concluded.
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