Three weeks after the launch of the campaing for helping the centres for acceptance of illegal immigrants from Asia and Africa, „Clandestino“, upon the initiative of Color Press Group, a significant amount of essential goods needed for the seekers of the asylums have been collected.
Rados Djurovic, executive director of the Centre for the protection and aid to asylum seekers, points out the importance of such campaigns and stresses that in fairly recent past, we were all witnesses to a similar situation: „It is the same scenario, but on a much smaller scale than that with refugees from former Yugoslavia. Even today, there is a significant number of people, approximately 300 of them, who came here weighed with great problems and without adequate accomodation or care, left to their own devices. In a sense, Bogovadja is experiencing a humanitarian disaster at the moment, which is currently being extended to Koviljaca spa as well. It is extremely important that our citizens further raise their consciousness about the importance of helping others though these campaigns, which helps to develop a more humane society and general public. In this stage, it is only possible to do so with such campaigns, with people of good will, who are motivated to help those who are having the most difficult time, by helping them directly by means of donating clothes, footwear or food. Unfortunately, with the arrival of winter, problems of these unfortunate people tend to get worse and now is the right time to give them a helping hand.”
Jelena Maric, spokesperson of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migrations, explains that this year, Serbia is faced with a large number of migrants, who, on their way to the countries of the Western Europe, stay in our country for a while. “At the moment, we have a number of people in Bogovadja who are outside the Asylum Centre, as well as two full Asylum Centres, but we are doing our best to overcome that and take a lease of private accommodation in order to find everyone a place to stay. At the time when we are faced with the high level of xenophobia, intolerance and lack of understanding even for our neighbours, let alone someone who is different or has a different colour of skin, the campaign to help these people is the most important in terms of giving them hope that there are still people who want to help someone who has a different name or has different cultural habits, who will not stay here, but who will remember Serbia as a country in which they were treated humanely, thanks to these gestures and helping hands,” Maric concluded.
November 4, 2013
Two weeks after Color Press Group started “Clandestino”, giving aid to centres for the acceptance of illegal immigrants from Asia and Africa, many companies and individuals have also joined this initiative.
“Many times in its history, Serbia proved that it can show empathy towards people who have lost their homes, and even their countries, regardless of their faith, race or nation. In 1941, 20,000 Slovenians found their home in Serbia after they had been driven out from their country by Germans. In 1990s, Serbia became a sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of refugees from former Yugoslavian republics, which were devastated by a civil war! Now, in 2013, we have a chance to show that we are worthy of this tradition, even in the times of economic crisis and poverty,” Robert Coban, president of Color Press Group, declared and revealed that the first aid to centres in Bogovadja and Koviljaca spa is due in the middle of November.
October 25, 2013
For the past 12 years, Color Press Group organizes regular monthly aid campaigns for different homes for children, patients, elderly and homeless people, such as Children’s Village in Sremska Kamenica, a Home for Developmentally-Challenged Children and Youth in Veternik, “Oaza” (“Oasis”), a home for the elderly and a homeless shelter in Futog.
A recent tragic shipwreck near Lampedusa island in which several hundreds of illegal immigrants from Africa died, motivated us to remember how our county has become the sanctuary for several thousands of illegal immigrants from Africa and Asia.
As the motto of our campaign, we have chosen a song by Manu Chao, “Clandestino” – which deals specifically with this problem of modern humanity: millions of people from Asia, Africa and Latin America who are fleeing wars, repression, hunger and poverty and who too often die in attempts to reach Europe or North America.
Last year, 2,723 persons requested an asylum in Serbia, out of which 1,560 were accommodated in centres in Koviljaca spa and Bogovadja. During the first six months of 2013, 1,516 foreign citizens requested the asylum after crossing the border, and 1,112 of them went through the abovementioned centres. The majority of asylum seekers come from Eritrea, Syria, Somalia, Mali, Sudan, Afghanistan…
In cooperation with the Commissariat for Refugees and Migrations of the Republic of Serbia, Color Press Group organizes a campaign to aid all these people that are accommodated in centres for asylum seekers in Bogovadja and Koviljaca spa.
Partners in this campaign, companies that are our clients, friends and advertisers, may donate food, footwear, clothes, medicines, vitamins, equipment and all other essential things for the upcoming winter.
Partners may donate goods from their product lines or to buy and donate something from the list submitted to us by the centres in Bogovadja and Koviljaca spa.
“Our campaigns so far have been directed to those who require help in our immediate surroundings: children, the elderly, homeless people… This time, these are people from Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea or Syria! Illegal immigrants who will maybe spend only few months in our country en route to some other European country. These are the people we will most likely never meet again. That is exactly a reason why I believe that we should show our solidarity and the real face of our country, since, throughout history, we often helped people who had to leave their homes due to wars, repression or poverty!”, Milica Djokic, director of corporate communications of Color Press Group, said.
Individuals or companies interested in joining us in this campaign may contact us via
milica.djokic@color.rs.