“Very oppressive”: that’s how Franz Küberl, president of Caritas Austria, called the situation of poverty in Serbia. Küberl was able personally to verify the situation for himself during a recent visit to Belgrade. In an interview with the Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress, published on 14 April, Küberl described the poverty that is widespread in the country of the former Yugoslavia, pointing out that “before very long Serbia will be surrounded by new EU member states and risks becoming a ‘centre of poverty’ in the region. In contrast to Serbia, states like Croatia, Bulgaria or Romania have prospects for the future”, while “the Serbs feel abandoned by Europe”. The president of Austrian Caritas also pointed out the particularly critical situation of “approximately 400,000 refugees who in part have been living for years in emergency accommodation. Many Serb refugees have been unable to return to their places of origin”. To this problem is added the “particularly sad” situation of “roughly 400,000 Romanies”, who “live on the margins of society”.
