Updates from the borders, 11. Oct 2015, 21:00

Serbian - Macedonian border

- PRESEVO - The situation is really bad, because heavy rains flooded the site and people sometimes had to wait literally in the knee-high water for hours. Despite all efforts of volunteers, queues are still not managed well and people are suffering from water and cold, waiting many hours. Coordination among volunteers got better, but still lack of semi-permanent facilities to provide help (only small swiss/german field kitchen providing food), but promised to have more by MSF ant others. Medical help not sufficient, cooperation with authorities tough, but working on this. If you have any medical volunteers available, please go to Presevo.

- More help is urgently needed, volunteers from various teams distributing food, water and also raincoats - they are hard to buy there in large quantities, so please bring them if you can. 3000 - 5000 refugees cross Presevo every day to get registration for Serbia so imagine the need of them.

- Contacts: Agon from the Youth Office when you come close only: Tel. +381 628 54 94 69 or go directly to the office for instructions or contact Xhelal Hasani from the Center of Solidarity and Advancement Tel. +381 633 74 034, xhelal_hasani (at) hotmail.com when nearby.

Hungary

- DONATIONS FOR MIGRATION AID and for SOS-BAMAKO HUNGARY NEEDED! Two Hungarian organizations still needs donations, their storages are getting empty. They are providing food and water to those refugees waiting for long hours in trains and buses to be transported further.

- Please see regular daily updates about what is needed and how to donate at :: facebook.com/migrationaidhungary and please donate!

- NEW: MigrationAid has a new temporary storage room close to the border area near Gyor where we can accept the same donations as in the Verseny street storage. Address: Duna street 28, Abda. Reception of donations only weekdays 10.00 - 12.00 (not on weekends or holidays). Also Budapest, Verseny street 10, still open for donations 16.00-20.00 every day.

- BUDAPEST - "We need tons of: rolls, pepper, apple, cereal bars, chocolate bars, yoghurt, triangle cheese, and plactic bags with carrier and also your help with preparing food packs at BUDAPEST 1084, BERKOCSIS STR. 41 (green door) to prepare food for Hegyeshalom."

- Information about donations from abroad :: migrationaid.net/english.

- ZAKANY - Up to 1700 people are on single train at Zákány and 8 there are up to trains daily. Huge efforts are made to cover food costs but volunteers there are quite out of money now. If anyone could contribute to food costs for refugees at Zákány please do it now. Info is updated daily here :: facebook.com/Migrant-Aid-Support-Europe-1678840242357662 and you can easily donate here :: gofundme.com/kc5jtbx4[urlext].

- And also: information on trains coming from Tovarnik crossing Botovo, Zákány, Győr for Hegyeshalom is now being collected in the group originally started for train information in Hungary. Please share and feel free to add information on trains (place, time, approximately number of people, special needs) at MiG RAiL [urlext https://www.facebook.com/groups/818175334964977/]facebook.com/groups/818175334964977.

- Team of volunteers "SOS Budapest - Bamako" is accepting donations for Zakany, contact them at :: facebook.com/Budapest-Bamako-SOS-Refugee-161590304178147, where you also can see what is needed there.
Refugees at Zakany constantly need water and food for lunchpackets (bananas, apples, sliced bread, sliced cheese, muesli bars), also baby food and diapers. Please donate and help them. You can also send money via :: gofundme.com/sosrefugee[urlext].

- HEGYESHALOM - Migration Aid's operative team is constantly looking for volunteers at the Hegyeshalom border. Volunteers would be working in team of four in 12 hrs shifts (6am-6pm, 6pm-6am). Volunteers provide distribution of donations and keeping the site clean. Volunteers are leaving daily from warehouse in Verseny utca, Budapest. First car at 4pm which also transports the daily supply and another one at 4am with the volunteers. Please see scheduling of volunteers shift for Hegyeshalom at [urlext http://bit.ly/1VueVBD]bit.ly/1VueVBD - as you can see, your help is needed!

For more information contact Andras Siewert, Tel.: +36 30 895 1917, E-mail: operations (at) migrationaid.net, :: facebook.com/siewert.org.

Croatia - Serbian border

- BAPSKA (Berkasovo from Serbian side) - Over 5000 refugees came since Yesterday 5pm. Last night was critical because of the heavy rain and the fact that Opatovac reception camp got crowded around 8pm so buses were busy taking refugees further to the train station and people in Bapska had to wait sometimes more than 4 hours for bus to come. There was enough of volunteers that helped to keep the situation calm, except one fight in the waiting line and very chilly weather, the situation was somehow ok. The biggest problem were kids and mothers with babies that were suffering from the cold and the rain the most.

- Croatian police set up army tents in the waiting area so now all the area is covered. We now have more than 25 volunteers and also week days should be all right, but be prepared for traveling when needed. We expect rain until Wednesday so raincoats and warm clothes is always welcomed.

- There has been outage of electricity generator, but new one has been bought on Sunday and is being installed. Also a room at local hotel has been rented and 10 volunteers could have a rest and take shower there between the shifts. Czech "People in need" NGO (PIN) is actively searching for renting a whole house to provide some additional support to volunteers, as weather get really colder and sleeping outside in tents leads to many diseases. This will be sorted out in a few days. Also, let me assure you that coordination agenda is still in heads of volunteers and PIN here is strictly kept supporting them. Honza Pejril is in charge of improving conditions for volunteers and Katja is enforcing our voice during Coordination meetings with other organizations and trying to get support from external resources. Weather is getting very cold so when coming, please make sure you have enough equipment for yourself. Also, we constantly check the situation in Tovarnik and now there are only few refugees brought by taxis and they are taken care of by red cross.

- All volunteers in Serbia must fill a short form and be registered to police, our volunteers went through the registration today and it is only a small form. System has been established to deliver all forms to police station in Šid via one person.

- Raincoats needed. Also 5l and 0,5l water packages, gloves, plastic cups and spoons, lot of black tea bags, duct tape, cookies, chocolate bars, bananas.

- Clothes: warm jackets and other warm clothes, gloves, hats, SHOES! (especially 38-44 size, but all sizes are good, especially mens), new SOCKS!, bags (backpacks, ikea bags, plastic waste bags). Also mens trousers - jeans are problematic to fit, please try to collect tracksuits and other loosely worn trousers, also leggins for women. Food in larger quantities is problem to delivery across the border, so please buy it in Serbia/Croatia directly. Don't bring t-shirts and other summer clothes, there is no time to deliver them at all and they takes space in the storages.

- Help in the area on Serbian side is coordinated by Misa, her number: +420 774 195 786. When arriving on place at Bapska to volunteer on both sides of the border, please report yourself at the organizing team and please obey they instruction.

- Volunteers from the Czech republic are asked to use :: uprchlici.respublica.cz to assign their timeslots and offer/demand transport to Croatia/Serbia.

- Volunteers traveling via Hungary/Serbia and Croatia/Serbia border crossings are still experiencing problems at the Serbian customs offices, which does not want to let them in the country without paying custom duties and declarations. Shoes, clothes and large quantities of food are also problem. Always try to reduce amount of aid you carry so it does not seem suspicious, also try to pretend you are not aid workers but just tourists. Cover supplies with your personal belonging and luggage. In case of problems, there is a possibility to leave your supplies at Tovarnik at Croatian side, but the size is limited. Use Tovarnik/Sid border crossing.

- Location of makeshift camp is near Sid at Serbian side, when approaching Sid from west (from Tovarnik) turn left on light, and after 2,5 km turn slightly left when road turns right (fork type of crossroad), then through the fields ca 3,5 km and you arrive on the spot.

- Even when working on Serbian site at Bapska border crossing, try to set permanently Croatian phone operators to stay within EU roaming prices.

Beograd

- Volunteers helping at Miksaliste (Mostarska 5, Beograd) set up also their VolunteerSpot account and are asking anyone who is in Belgrade to sign up for various tasks needed to be done there. Visit :: volunteerspot.com/login/entry/4179297180119 to see what is needed there and to sign up for timeslots, or email them at refugeeaidserbiavolunteers (at) gmail.com.

Other news

- Please don't spread panic on social media without double checking the information, rather contact anyone responsible for coordination than spreading panic. It can lead to waste of human resources and donations. The more urgent the message sounds, the more it's needed to double check and confirm. Please don't share any information missing exact location, date and time, as this would cause more harm than good. Also please be careful when spreading information about not-cooperating NGOs or authorities - is always better to try solve problem on site, spreading that on social media does not seems to help much. Build coalitions on site, try to find policemen or members of NGOs who are willing to talk things and try to earn their trust, even if you don't agree with their approach to the problem. Once you have trust, there is much higher chance you will achieve your goals in establishing measures on site.

- If you are on the road and need to know which refugee areas have urgent needs please check :: refugeemap.com, which is updated daily by a team of volunteers. If you are online regularly and could contribute in updating new spots and helping field volunteers this way, please contact them at :: facebook.com/RefugeeMap.

- You can follow map with all spots with refugees here :: umap.openstreetmap.fr/cs-cz/map/refugee-crisis-eu_55091#6/46.883/20.314.

- Archive of these updates could be found at :: pastebin.com/u/michalberg.

- Police department in Burgenland (Eastern Austria) has opened a 24hrs hotline. Family members who are looking for their relatives can call: +43 591 331 033 33.

- If you are willing to donate money to Czech team in Serbia, you can use my paypal paypal (at) esports.cz and I will move the funds immediately to the people on site. You can also donate donation (at) migrationaid.net for MigrationAid. Thanks to those who already donated!

- When traveling to help, always take headlight, reflexion vest, good shoes, protective gloves and warm clothes and be prepared for rain. And always try to contact anyone in charge of coordination on site and obey his instructions and forget about any alcohol on site. Please also note that situation may change at any time.

- Czech only: Kordinátoři sestavili Kodex dobrovolníka, který se vycestováním zavazujete dodržovat :: kodexdobrovolnika.jdem.cz.

- Odkaz na užitečný manuál pro dobrovolníky je :: dobrovolnici.jdem.cz - určitě čtěte před odjezdem. Pro vjezd do Srbska stačí jakákoli platná občanka.

Source :: pastebin.com/zddAQDdx, 11. Oct 2015.