In what the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs is presenting as a bold success, border police shot and killed a migrant near the town of Šid, close to the Croatian border, during an “enhanced control operation” aimed at irregular migrants. According to officials, the officers were allegedly fired upon from an “illegal migrant camp” — a collection of makeshift shelters set up by people with nowhere else to go.
The ministry’s statement carefully framed the event as self-defense. One migrant, reportedly “armed,” was killed on the spot. Four others were arrested, and several more presumably unarmed and terrified fled the scene and are now being pursued by Serbian authorities.
The operation, which uncovered an improvised campsite inhabited by individuals fleeing war, poverty, and persecution, has raised serious concerns. Yet, Serbian police chose to approach the situation with guns drawn, treating desperate people sleeping under tarps as if they were cartel operatives.
This aggressive “securing of the area” is being led by forces from the Sremska Mitrovica Police Department and overseen by the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, who are now tasked with “clarifying the circumstances.” A clarification many fear will, as usual, fall neatly in line with the official version: police under threat, migrants to blame, and no accountability in sight.
The Serbian state has long struggled with transparency in its handling of migrants. But a fatal shooting justified with vague claims of returned fire from a group barely surviving in the woods may mark a new low in the country’s already questionable border practices.
As investigations unfold, one truth remains: a migrant is dead, and once again, the state’s story is the only one being told.
