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Abstract
In 2015, the mass mobilities of refugees, many from Syria, towards Western Europe, were presented as a crisis threatening the integrity of nation-states. Whilst governments along the so-called 'Balkan route' increasingly responded with exclusionary measures, large-scale solidarity movements emerged and played a key role in assisting refugees in their journeys and settlement. All along the route, activists and volunteers (sometimes in loose collaboration with official relief organizations) established solidarity communities that tasked themselves with assisting people on the move. Their activities have been underpinned by discourses of solidarity and hospitality reflecting deep-seated popular beliefs about displacement, sanctuary and refuge—alternative narratives of what is today called asylum. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with solidarity and refugee groups in Greece, Serbia and Hungary, I examine the practices and discourses of refugees and those mobilized to support them along the 'Balkan route'.

Contextualizing refugee 'crisis' and EU integration : interrelatedness and mutual reciprocity / Pavlos Gkasis and Marko Kmezic -- The EU integration project through the lens of the Balkan-route 'migrant crisis' / Iryna Kushnir, Majella Kilkey and Francesca Strumia -- EU-Turkey relations and the migration issue : transactionalism in action / Dimitris Tsarouhas -- The migration/refugee crisis and the (un/re)making of Europe : risks and challenges for Greece / Dimitris Keridis -- The Balkan human corridor and the case of North Macedonia / Zoran Ilievski and Hristina Runcheva Tasev -- The impact of the "refugee crisis" on European integration in the field of asylum and migration : a Serbian perspective / Stefan Surlic -- Is Bosnia and Herzegovina a new hotspot on the Balkan route? / Armina Galijaš -- Securitizing migration in contemporary Hungary : from discourse to practice / András Szalai -- Germany after '2015' : still a country of immigration and asylum? / Marcus Engler -- Conclusions : the crisis of migrants as opposed to the migrant 'crisis' and the crisis of European solidarity / Marko Kmezic.

Since 2015 more than half a million people migrated in many of the European Union Countries through the Western Balkan route. Most of the migrants traveled from Syria and its neighboring countries via Turkey, Greece and the Western Balkans to the Western European countries in order to seek asylum and a better life. There are a couple of routes that the migrants use, one is the Western Mediterranean route, the Central Mediterranean route that is the most deadly, and Eastern Mediterranean route through Turkey and Greece. The Balkan route was opened and used because the migrants that passed through these countries were not there to stay and seek asylum but to transit and move to Germany and the other EU member states. The Balkan countries cannot host the migrants because they do not have the capacities due to different circumstances but on the other hand, the migrants don't want to seek asylum in these countries their destination is upward. From 2015 the Balkan route was a fast transit route, migrants passed from Serbia to Hungary, or toward Croatia and Slovenia. This scenario changed with the introduction of new stricter asylum policies and closing of the borders by many EU states and implementing of the EU-Turkey agreement which was planned to close the Balkan Route. On 18th of March 2016 was signed the EUTurkey Statement to end the flow of irregular migrants and replace it with safe and legal means. EU promised Turkey financial help and resettling the refugees directly from Turkey to other EU member states. Although the deal was partly successful and reduced the inflow of legal refugees it also left many refugees stranded in the Balkan countries territories especially in Serbia and Macedonia which is a great burden for this countries. The closing of the borders or the closing of the Balkan Route it may decrease the frequent inflow of refugees but it did not stop the irregular migration, in fact, it increased it, which opened the doors for smugglers, and new alternative routes opened like the route between Serbia and Bulgaria. In order to stabilize the refugee crisis, especially the problems with the strained refugees and to prevent the other possible scenarios that may arise as a consequence of the above situation, there should be increase in the regional cooperation, straightening the border management, balance the reception capacity, the EU assistance to be increased as well as the humanitarian support and the fight against smugglers these have to be the key steps that need to be taken to stabilize the crisis. Keywords: Balkan Route, Turkey agreement, EU policies, refugees, border securitization

"This book is an ethnography of the people migrating through the Balkan route and the reaction of the local communities who witnessed their struggle to reach the European Union. Based on extensive fieldwork conducted in North Macedonia and Serbia, it pays special attention to the "refugee crisis", that gave birth to a new border regime based on a permanent suspension of laws, normalisation of violence, and the entrapment of migrants stranded in a liminal space at the gates to the EU, neither able to go further nor back. The book will appeal to an international audience of academics of migration studies, social and political science, and the wider public interested in migration and social and political changes in Southeast Europe."--

As of March 2016, 4.8 million Syrian refugees were scattered in two dozen countries by the civil war. Refugee smuggling has been a major catalyst of human trafficking in the Middle East and Europe migrant crises. Data on the extent to which smuggling devolved into trafficking in this refugee wave is, however, scarce. This article investigates how Syrian refugees interact with smugglers, shedding light on how human smuggling and human trafficking interrelated on the Balkan Route. I rely on original evidence from in-depth interviews (n = 123) and surveys (n = 100) with Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Serbia, and Germany; as well as ethnographic observations in thirty-five refugee camps or other sites in these countries. I argue that most smugglers functioned as guides, informants, and allies in understudied ways—thus refugee perceptions diverge dramatically from government policy assumptions. I conclude with a recommendation for a targeted advice policy that would acknowledge the reality of migrant-smuggler relations, and more effectively curb trafficking instead of endangering refugees.

The paper is an attempt to present the genealogy and phenomenology of the Balkan route as a transit channel and final destination for prostitution and human trafficking. This route with different intensity was used in the past and today for smuggling people, narcotics, human organs and others. Here are the definitions and distinctions of the terms prostitution and human trafficking, a brief comparative overview of the legal regulation of these terms in some of the Balkan legislations and is given a sociological analysis of the etiology, phenomenology and prevention of prostitution and human trafficking. The impact of the rapid progress and growth of communication technologies as a variable that facilitates transit on the one hand but also the detection and suppression of trafficking on the other is also considered. In addition to state institutions, the analysis also includes the role and influence of the non-governmental sector in dealing with these deviant forms of behavior.

As of March 2016, 4.8 million Syrian refugees were scattered in two dozen countries by the civil war. Refugee smuggling has been a major catalyst of human trafficking in the Middle East and Europe migrant crises. Data on the extent to which smuggling devolved into trafficking in this refugee wave is, however, scarce. This article investigates how Syrian refugees interact with smugglers, shedding light on how human smuggling and human trafficking interrelated on the Balkan Route. I rely on original evidence from in-depth interviews (n = 123) and surveys (n = 100) with Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Serbia, and Germany; as well as ethnographic observations in thirty-five refugee camps or other sites in these countries. I argue that most smugglers functioned as guides, informants, and allies in understudied ways—thus refugee perceptions diverge dramatically from government policy assumptions. I conclude with a recommendation for a targeted advice policy that would acknowledge the reality of migrant-smuggler relations, and more effectively curb trafficking instead of endangering refugees.

Witnessing the biggest migration flow towards its territories, the process opened a Pandora's Box, once again showing to the world how high is the level of incoordination between European countries, especially those from the European Union which at the end is the destination for the vast majority of migration groups. We witnessed a German politic of free movement and acceptance of refugees and migrants; Great Britain's "dark side" during quarrels with France regarding Calais situations and all those unsuccessful attempts of migrants to move through Le Mans tunnel; Hungary's Balkan mentality and fences experiments; Greece's irresponsibility and other members government's passive actions. Such incoordination resulted in an agreement with Turkey and closing of the Balkan route. Did EU actually really close it? Or just like every prohibition is good business, this one once again opened "working" possibility for organized criminal groups from the smuggling of migrants business? Key words: agreement, Balkan route, European Union, migrants, smuggling of migrants.

Migratory pathways across the borders of South Eastern Europe have been commonly recognised within public and policy discourses as the 'Balkan Route' (Frontex, 2018; UNHCR, 2019). Yet those pathways do not follow one linear route across the official border checkpoints of former Yugoslav states – Serbia and Bosnia, to the European Union – Croatia and Hungary (Obradovic-Wochnik & Bird, 2019; Stojić & Vilenica, 2019). As often encountered by displaced populations, the journeys consist of perpetually moving onward and being pushed backward across diverse European towns, highways, mountains, forests, rivers, minefields, and camps, necessary to cross to reach western or northern Europe. Displaced people stranded in Serbia and Bosnia generally call their border crossing attempts the 'game'; the term that conveys the daily mobility struggles, violence and deaths.