Balkans

The decision by Poland and the Baltic nations to legalise the pushback of migrants at the Belarusian border is leading to a dangerous game of ping pong with vulnerable people, as BIRN has witnessed. When BIRN came across Safaa Alnaseri near the village of Minkowce in northeast Poland, on the …

Local courts in several EU countries, including Austria, Italy, and Slovenia, have ruled in favour of refugees and migrants who were pushed back over the bloc’s external borders, but can they stop the practice altogether? It was raining. Ayoub and his six companions were soaked through and shivering in the …

The recent repatriation of families of ISIS fighters to Kosovo, Albania and North Macedonia poses a tough challenge to all three countries to rehabilitate them back into society. On July 18, North Macedonia announced that it had repatriated 23 of its citizens who had spent the last few years on …

As climate change becomes more evident and droughts worsen, Balkan cities need to reduce the huge amount of water leaking each year from pipelines. Every day a woman went to a deep well in the middle of a vast meadow to fill her pots with water. The well had a …

Relations between Brussels and Ankara – already strained by earlier crises over refugees – face an even bigger test as the number of Afghans fleeing westwards rapidly increases. Thousands of refugees, mostly from Afghanistan and some other Asian countries, passing the Turkish-Iranian border, make regular new headlines in Turkey. A …

Christian Schmidt will need his wits about him – and the firm backing of Germany, the EU and US – if he is to avert a dangerous escalation in Bosnia. Bosnia’s new international High Representative, German Christian Schmidt, touched down at the beginning of August, but he will have scant …

Montenegro is failing to go after the organised crime groups preying on migrants and refugees trying to cross the country, experts say. With just four cases ending in convictions in the past five years, Montenegro is facing calls to step up prosecution of the smugglers who prey on migrants and …

Despite losing its parliamentary majority, Poland’s ruling party managed to force through a media law that could spell the end of the largest private television station in the country. After a stormy day in the Polish parliament, Law and Justice (PiS) finally managed to scrape enough support late on Wednesday …

This week, while Croatia celebrates its victory in 1995’s Operation Storm and Serbia mourns the victims, nationalists on both sides will be seeking to profit politically from one of the war’s most traumatic events, says sociologist Marijana Stojcic. Every August, relations cool between Croatia and Serbia and officials exchange harsh …

Two young anthropologists have delved into the ways Albanians have traditionally interpreted dreams – and what this says about their culture and society. Eating honey signals sorrow and bitterness, fire signals joy, smoke signals distress while a snake means you will have an enemy the next day. Long hair signal …