The audience had a chance to listen to Guinness recorder in hand walking, charming Mahana Jami from Iran, currently accommodated in South Serbia. Mahana is disabled since birth, but fully focused on sports and taking down barriers. Ecologist Muhamed Abassi from Iraq presented his group from Principovac that gathered with the aim of cleaning the local lake. Young Anurin Askar from Afghanistan won the second place at Subotica city cross and is keen to continue with the sports, with her father being extremely proud. Gonzales Alcantra Belquis, from Cuba, spoke about designing silent books together with her daughter in a workshop called Mastalice (Imaginaries). Milad Baydar presented his agricultural project “From seed to feed”, focused on brining quality food to cattle all the yearlong. While being accommodated in Tutin, Sandzak area, he was inspired by the local agriculture that lacks good quality food for the cattle around the year. 

International Migrants Day was established in 2000 by the UN to bring the attention to the growing number of migrant population in the world. In Serbia, there are currently 4’300 migrants accommodated in 16 government managed reception centers. The majority of migrants come from Afghanistan followed by Iran, Pakistan and Iraq. The above event was organized by the Serbian Commissariat for refugees and migrants, in partnership with the International organization for migration (IOM) and with the financial support of the EU and Switzerland. 

In the past few years, Switzerland has been supporting Serbia’s migration management system as to adequately respond to the current trends. Main partners are the Serbian Commissariat for refugees and migrants and the Ministry of Interior, both active participants in the Swiss-Serbian Migration partnership. When it comes to migration management, until now Switzerland has supported Serbia with 11 million EUR.