BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Tensions simmered one night inside the smoky Belgrade City cafe in a rough neighborhood near the train station. The price of a human being was being decided.
Dozens of young Middle Eastern and African men dressed in track suits and woolen caps were frantically negotiating with a Serbian smuggler on the costs of illegal trips over Balkan borders that are rapidly closing to them. The migrants, desperate to escape war and poverty in their homelands, needed help to get closer to their dream destination – Western Europe.
“I cannot do it for less than 5,000 (euros) for that group,” the smuggler told a Moroccan middleman in English, who relayed the sum in Arabic on his cellphone to others. There was a short pause.
“That’s too much for those people, they don’t have that money,” the Moroccan said.
“Then, no deal,” the Serb smuggler replied. Taking a deep cigarette puff and a sip of whiskey, he turned to other potential clients who were lined up along the dim-lit bar covered with fading photos of Paris and other European capitals.