WE WANT OPEN BORDERS, NO TO FORTRESS EUROPE: A protest due to the International day of fight against racism (PHOTO)
We are witnesses of hundreds of thousands of people running away from the consequences of the war, direct and indirect, and going towards Europe. On their path, these people are facing numerous challenges and thus their position is growing worse
Racism in Serbia exists, and the minority members feel that every day, it was said at the meeting of the NGOs due to the International day of fight against racism, March 21.
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Coordinator of the organization "Women's space", Vera Kurtic, said that the most prejudices are against Albanians, Roma people, and Bosniaks.
Lately, refugees are facing the same treatment.
She said to the beta news agency that these communities feel xenophobia, because the people here "are afraid of everything that is unknown, different, and new".
According to her, the system is the one which has to help creating a society of social justice, in which all the people will have equal rights.
She said that NGO sector cannot do a lot without the help from the state, because the laws are useless if you are not implementing them in real life.
- In practice, when dealing with Roma population, education measures are good, but when they want to get a job, racial discrimination gets in the way - she said.
Female members of those groups are receiving the worst treatment because they are told that they are to blame for their position and that they are too lazy, she added.
Mirko Medenica from the organization "Women in black" said that the performance "We want open borders, no to fortress Europe" is at the same time the protest against everything that has been happening when it comes to migrants from the Middle East.
According to him, refugees and migrants were not welcomed accordingly neither in Europe nor in Serbia, and behind the false picture of humanity there is police corruption and brutality, things not visible for the public.
- We are here to show that fascism, xenophobia, and homophobia have become something regular, normal in everyday communication. We want to point to the lunacy of such state - said Medenica.
Members of the organization carried boards with inscriptions "Stop torturing people from the Middle East", "Stop the war, not the people", "We want open borders", "Closed borders mean open doors for smugglers", and so on.
Members of the Roma organization and Women's space made a performance "I want to have a choice" in front of the former restaurant "Ruski car" in Knez Mihailova street with which they showed all the problems torturing them.
International day of fight against racism was established to honor March 21, 1960 when 69 people were killed in South African Republic because they were protesting against apartheid.
In 1966, General Assembly of the UN pronounced this date to be International date of fight against racism.