ay in her After human attitude toward humanity became progressive , rights and morality have existed and expanded among civilized people throughout the world ,and generated human rights. Human rights have become inherent property of humanity. They belong to every person in every land. Definition of human rights in some countries are slightly different ,but all of their objectives are to improve and treat people equally. However, some people in some countries still lack the rights. The most important pieces of human rights are freedoms. Freedom is the most essential principle of humanity and morality. According to former U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941), Four freedoms can be divided into 4 parts which are freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. This essay will mainly focus on problems from freedom from want in Serbia. Freedom from want is the right to have standard being and basic needs. This freedom also emphasizes quality of life in terms of finance, health, peacefulness, habitat, social status and education ,but they have not been applied thoroughly to some types of people in some areas in Serbia as they should be. In order to solve these freedom from want problems, Serbian respect to human rights needs to improve seriously.
To begin with, 6,650 lives of migrants and refugees in Serbia have been encountering problems on lack of standard life conditions. Several services and facilities are insufficient. The major cause of this problem is negative attitude toward different ethics and religions, especially to the migrants and refugees. Most of them moved out from Muslim countries. They came from south and east Europe in European migrant crisis, who are Syrian (46.7%), Afghan (20.9%) and Iraqi (9.4%) (Wikipedia,N.D.). Serbian perspective on migrants and refugees ranks is 135th from 138 countries ,Gallup poll (as cited in Knezevic,2017). Serbians began to hate asylum after a moment because they do not want asylum camps in Serbia any longer. "At the beginning, most people's reaction to the refugees was positive because it was assumed that they would eventually move on," says Nikola Kovacevic (as cited in Knezevic,2017), a lawyer of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights. They have been deficient on many needs such as electricity, shelters, clothes, transportation, toilets, food and cleaning water. In spite of assistance from donating associations, asylum is still short of these needs. For example, in winter, they had to burn the garbage to generate heat, even though it poisoned their lungs, they have to cook in forest because they are not allowed to use kitchens in the camps ,they are rejected by any public transportation ,and they have no warm clean water to drink or use, according to Kais Ayoubi of the Real Medicine Foundation ,who works in asylum camp (as cited in Loncar, 2017). In addition, juveniles in asylum do not acquire proper education. Although there is education that provides by migrant teachers in the camp, its quality is still not good enough. There is lack of teaching equipment, books, good-teaching condition and qualified teachers. Also, most children do not receive education, according to Jawad Afzali (as cited in Loncar, 2017) a 17 years old Afghan migrant who has stuck in Serbia’s border for 6 months. Even though education institutions in Serbia offer help to children , most of them are not interested because they are scared to not be able to leave from centre of Serbia. Refugees and migrants in Serbia are on incredibly terrible situation. They can only wait patiently for the opportunity to move out there.
According to UNICEF’s data (2016), around 6,650 migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, who are 2600 children, have stucked in Serbia. It is another vital problem in Serbia. They can not move out due to Serbia, hungary and Croatia's policy that closed the gateways. Their initial destinations are Germany, Italy, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, but Serbia is a passageway to them. Serbia is not completely in the European Union yet. They are still in process. The accession will be done in 2020. As a result, the asylum seekers moving are illegal in Serbia even with valid EU passports. In 2015 Hungary built fence along Serbia’s border to prevent illegally crossing ,which is 4 meters height and 175 kilometers length, and Croatia has closed the main road and many roads for crossing to there. There are a lot of efforts to cross the borders stealthily, but most of them are usually caught and brought back to the camp. Afzali (as cited in Loncar,2017) said that “I tried to leave Serbia 17 times, every time, they bring me back here. Two days ago, i tried to enter Croatia. Now I’m here again.”. What they are trying is probably wrong, but it is the necessity in the situation like this. Otherwise, they have to wait for 3-4 years for fully EU engaging of Serbia.
The other significant problem in Serbia excluding asylum is poverty. Serbian average income per year is only $5820. They are the 7th poorest countries in Europe (Carmichael,2017). Their minimum wage is only 278.7 $. Their currency had also declined. In 2008, 1 Serbian dinar is equal to 0.002 US dollar, but, on 19/10/2017, it is only 0.001. It has decreased 50 percents in 10 years (XE,2017). Also, many people in Serbia are unemployed. According to CIA’s The world factbook (2016), Serbian unemployment rate is 13.8% which is 158th from 210 countries. Furthermore, Serbia has the highest inequality in income distribution in Europe for past 3 years. 20 percents of workers with high income earn salary 9 times more than the 20 percents of the lowest income workers(FREN, 2017). This gap will make some resources in the country unaffordable for low-income people, according to FREN, Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (2017). Most of money circulation in Serbia is mainly in Belgrade , Serbia’s capital city. As a consequence, other city’s main job is agricultural. People in rural towns are less educated and much poorer in Belgrade especially the southeastern part which is approximately 4 times poorer than the capital city. However, the poverty crisis in Serbia is getting better. In recent years, many big companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, and US Steel have been interested in Serbia (Carmichael, 2017). The unemployment rate decreased from 17.9 % in 2015 to 13.8 % in 2016 and their GDP growth rate, which shows the percentage of economic growth per year, has gradually and steadily increased, -1.8 % in 2014, 0.8 % in 2015 and 2.8 % in 2016 (CIA, N.D.). Hopefully, this gap will be narrowed down, rural parts will be developed, and the whole country will become better.
In summary, Serbia is in difficult situations. They have been encountering those issues which devastated country’s reputation and prosperity. Some problems like migration problems are out of control. Those problems caused from outside and Serbia is the victim. However, Serbians have violated some human rights too. Serbians and asylums-seekers began hating each other ,and native people started discriminating them because of their negative attitude. Consequently, it made bad effects for both. If they gradually reduce their bad attitude and try to understand each other, they would peacefully live together in the future. Also, the poverty in Serbia tends to be better in recent future. All of these problems are against human rights especially in Freedom from want. A considerable number of refugees, migrants, and poor people do not receive standard quality of life, in terms of necessities, equality and finance. The solution of these issues is not the government or any authority responsibility ,but it is every human in Serbia’s responsibility.
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