The Final Fontier

Up to 2,000 Afghan refugees including children as young as eight were sleeping rough in two abandoned warehouses in Belgrade, seeking shelter from -17 degree conditions. The warehouses had no running water or sanitation, and the refugees and migrants live in derelict conditions, burning everything they can get their hands on to keep warm. MSF reported burns inside their lungs from the inhalation of toxic fumes, whilst others reported having frostbite.

Among the refugees were former Afghan interpreters for the US army, refused asylum and forced to leave Afghanistan, their lives threatened by the Taliban. Serbia is not part of the EU but it borders several countries that are, including Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. It has become the final frontier for refugees and migrants seeking to reach western Europe.

Alice Aedy

Alice Aedy is a 24 year-old documentary photographer and film-maker published in The Times, Vice, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Huck Magazine, Monocle Magazine and more. Alice graduated with a degree in History and Politics from LSE in 2015 and spent much of 2016/17 on the front-lines of the European refugee crisis, reporting from inside refugee camps in Greece, Serbia and France. Her focus is on forced migration, women’s rights and environmental issues.