BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Thousands of vaccine seekers from neighboring countries of Serbia flocked to Belgrade on Saturday after Serbian authorities offered foreigners free coronavirus shots if they showed up at the weekend.
Long lines of Bosniaks, Montenegrins and North Macedonians – often entire families – formed in front of the main vaccination center in the Serbian capital while the police kept watch.
‘We don’t have any vaccines. I came here to get vaccinated, ”said Zivko Trajkovski, who is from North Macedonia. “We are very grateful because we can vaccinate faster than in Macedonia.”
Zoran Dedic from Bosnia noted that his country and Serbia were part of a joint federation before Yugoslavia fell apart in war in the 1990s. “It doesn’t matter, Bosnia or Serbia. It doesn’t matter, ”he said.
Most Serbian neighbors in the Balkans are in shortages and have only just started massive vaccination campaigns, while Serbia prides itself on having adequate stocks and one of Europe’s highest per capita vaccination rates.
The Serbian government has donated doses of vaccine to North Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia.
Critics of the populist Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic claim that he is trying to spread his influence in the Balkans and polish the ultra-nationalist image acquired during the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia.
Others say the AstraZeneca vaccination shots that Serbia gives to foreigners are nearing their expiration date and should be used as soon as possible, a claim that could not be verified.
The Bosnian Klix news portal on Saturday morning described huge rows of cars forming at border crossings with Serbia.
Klix reported that Bosnian businessmen would receive jabs on Saturday after the Serbian Chamber of Commerce offered 10,000 shots to their colleagues in the region.
Serbia has one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe, mainly thanks to large government purchases of the Sinopharm vaccine from China and the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. The country also uses the vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca.
While more than 2 million people in the country of 7 million have been given at least one chance so far, Serbia has seen a notable drop in the number of residents signing up. Officials and doctors are linking the drop-off in interest to an increasingly vocal anti-vaccination movement.