cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/50778341
Their chances of settling in the United States increasingly bleak, a growing number of Chinese nationals are travelling visa-free to Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina and crossing into the European Union.
Driven by economic hardship and political discontent, a growing number of Chinese nationals are trying to reach the EU via the Balkans, their route to the United States made more difficult by the loss of a visa-free regime with Ecuador and growing hostility under Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.
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In 2024, more than 620 illegal border crossings by Chinese nationals were recorded on the Western Balkan route, according to statistics from the European Union border agency, Frontex, plus a further 30 travelling via Greece and Albania.
In 2022, the figure for the Western Balkan route was just 88. In 2025, it hit 706.
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In China, youth unemployment remains high. The unemployment rate among 16 to 24-year-olds was 18.9 per cent last August. In 2023, the figure hit a record high of 21.3 per cent, amid signs of an economic slowdown.
Some Chinese migrants on the Balkan route said that they decided to leave China after their small businesses suffered during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
The country’s shrinking economic opportunities and intensified social controls in recent years have also fuelled dissent; some Chinese are losing hope of a better life, especially for their children.
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For more than a decade, the Balkan route has been a major pathway for refugees and irregular migrants mainly from the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia trying to reach the EU.
Given China has visa-free arrangements with both Serbia and Bosnia, Chinese nationals have an advantage – they are able to travel directly to Belgrade and cross without visas into Bosnia.
This is a double-edged sword, however, said Milica Svabic, a lawyer affiliated with the Serbian NGO Klikaktiv, which provides legal and social support for migrants and refugees on the Balkan route.
Able to slip into Serbia and rent private accommodation, Chinese nationals are “completely invisible”, said Svabic. “They’re invisible to state institutions [and] NGOs, and this can open the door to labour exploitation, sexual exploitation.”
Many also turn to smugglers to cross into the EU.
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In then years under its current leader Xi Jinping, China experienced a mass exodus as asylum seekers surpassed one million, according to the China-focused NGO Safeguard Defenders.
The number is even more staggering considering the increasing exit controls (including exit bans) placed on determinate categories of Chinese citizens by Chinese authorities. The continuing upward trend also serves as a stark reminder that China’s domestic human rights abuse is not the mere “internal affair” as it so often likes to claim.
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