Every day, migrants in groups of five or six, and sometimes more, arrive in villages in Kursumli, in southeastern Serbia. They break into abandoned houses and take everything they can, scaring the villagers. According to the citizens who called the police, forty people arrived through the Merdare point.
Dragan Raikovic, President of the local community of Kosanichka Racha, testifies that the arrival of migrants from Syria, Iraq and other countries of the Middle East through Albania and Kosovo is not decreasing in central Serbia. He says that, on the contrary, in recent days their number has increased in this section of the main road from Merdar to Kurshumliya.
“In addition to looting houses, it’s even worse that they attack villagers”, – says Milivoe Kalichanin from Rachi, pointing with his hand to a house that was plundered by migrants.
However, he says that it’s even more frightening that his nephews tried to block the road when he was driving a car to a cemetery in a neighboring village. There were nine of them, and they tried to force open the car door.
Previously, the residents of Merdare experienced the biggest problems, the first point after the administrative border with Kosovo.
“This is really scary, we are extremely worried for our own life. Soon, we may have to move because of them, because we feel unsafe”, – said a woman from Rachi, who, when asked how migrants got to this village, fifteen kilometers from Merdar, shrugged.