BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Thousands of vaccine candidates from countries neighboring Serbia migrated to Belgrade on Saturday after Serbian authorities offered foreigners free coronavirus vaccines if they appeared over the weekend.
Long lines of Bosnians, Montenegrins and northern Macedonians – usually whole families – formed in front of the main vaccination center in the Serbian capital while the police were watching.
“We don’t have vaccines. I came here to get vaccinated, ”said Zivko Trajkovski, who is from North Macedonia. “We are very grateful that we can vaccinate faster than in Macedonia.”
Bosnia’s Zoran Dedic noted that his country and Serbia were part of a joint federation before Yugoslavia disintegrated in a war during the 1990s. “It makes no difference, Bosnia or Serbia. It doesn’t matter, ”he said.
Most of Serbia’s Balkan neighbors are battling shortages and have just started mass vaccination campaigns, while Serbia prides itself on having a large stock and one of the highest vaccination rates per capita in Europe.
The Serbian government donated doses of vaccines to North Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia.
Critics of populist Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic say he is trying to spread his influence in the Balkans and polish the ultranationalist image he acquired during the bloody separation from Yugoslavia.
Others say that the AstraZeneca vaccines that Serbia is giving to foreigners are nearing the expiration date and need to be used as soon as possible, a claim that could not be verified.
Bosnia’s Klix news portal described huge lines of cars forming at border crossings with Serbia on Saturday morning.
Klix said Bosnian businessmen were due to receive jabs on Saturday after the Serbian Chamber of Commerce offered 10,000 doses to its colleagues in the region.
Serbia has one of the highest inoculation rates in Europe, mainly thanks to large government purchases of the Sinopharm vaccine from China and the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. The country is also using vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca.
Although more than 2 million people in the country of 7 million have already received at least one shot, Serbia has seen a notable decline in the number of residents signing up. Officials and doctors link the drop in interest to an increasingly active anti-vaccine movement.