This lady - Iraqi, 33 years old. Here in Belgrade with her sister, her brother, his wife and their five month old baby. They are from Baghdad. She was a lawyer and a reporter. Her father, a carpenter, was blown apart when a bomb exploded outside his workshop. She was threatened, her brother and his wife kidnapped.  

Such is life in Baghdad where, in the eyes of the militants, life has no value. And so they fled. 

They thought about resettlement from Turkey but, she said, the process would take too long and, in the meantime they had no way to live. And so they took that perilous journey across the Aegean Sea to Greece. Endured five months at Softex, one of the most notorious warehouses in northern Greece, and then on, with smugglers, to Serbia. They want to get to Germany. They are not surprised by Trump's move. They saw it coming she said as soon as he was elected.  

They hope though that Europe will be more generous. The Europe that has to-date not come close to living up to its responsibilities in this crisis. Over 60,000 refugees remain stalled in Greece. Over 14,000 somewhere along the so-called Balkan Route, 7,000 of those in Serbia.  

And the only ones smiling are the smugglers.  

January 2017