Days of Limbo

Refugees and asylum seekers await in disbelief to cross into Austria after being stranded for a whole day in a buffer zone between Slovenia and Austria. No humanitarian support, food or medical relief was provided on a patch of land between the countries, barred by a fence and protected by police, where some of the refugees and asylum seekers waited to cross into Austria.
Refugees and asylum seekers await in disbelief to cross into Austria after being stranded for a whole day in a buffer zone between Slovenia and Austria. No humanitarian support, food or medical relief was provided on a patch of land between the countries, barred by a fence and protected by police, where some of the refugees and asylum seekers waited to cross into Austria.

 

 

In October 2015, more than 100.000 refugees and asylum seekers have passed a tiny country of Slovenia, which makes it about 5 percent of its population.

Once part of Yugoslavia, now part of the Schengen area, Slovenia is a transition country, the last part of the so-called Balkan route for refugees and migrants, seeking better life in countries of the European Union.

The small patch of land between Slovenia and Austria was established as a buffer zone for more controlled and efficient passage of the refugees and asylum seekers crossing the border. Barred by a fence and surrounded by the police, there was no free access for humanitarian support, food and medical support for the refugees and asylum seekers who have been waiting in disbelief, sometimes even for two days. Lined up for so long, some refugees and asylum seekers reached the verge of sanity.

During the most critical time, at the end of October, crowds of refugees and asylum seekers trying to cross into Austria, reached hundreds of people. They were all waiting at the fence for the Austrian authorities to let them cross into an Austrian refugee camp. Some of the refugees and asylum seekers have been lining up in a crowd for a whole day, deprived of any food, water or chance to use the bathroom, only to guard their spot in the queue to cross once the police opened the passage.

Occasionally the crowd of people was dense to the point that the light from surrounding flood lights rarely reached ground level, yet it illuminated faces of those who stood up to stretch their body or to protest against the long wait. Faces of those, caught in a limbo, were painted with disbelief, anger and disappointment.