Migrants and citizens of Vranje treated themselves to cakes for Persian New Year

Today, children from the Reception Centre for Migrants in Vranje shared decorated cakes with people in the city’s pedestrian zone. It was their way of marking the Persian New Year – Nowruz, which is celebrated today in Iran and Afghanistan, and coincides with the beginning of spring.

Deputy Mayor of Vranje Nenad Antic said that the City authorities have supported this, just like all the other activities helping migrants accommodated at the Reception Centre.

“Marking the Persian New Year, which is also the beginning of the spring, promotes solidarity, family, all the values our society is based on. Migrants accommodated at the Reception Centre in Vranje are people in trouble. Local self-government and our country helped them because we know what it’s like fleeing from wars”, said Mr Antic.

Milica Andjelkovic Jovanovic, representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Vranje, said that sharing cakes with the citizens is one of the ways for migrants accommodated at the reception centre to express their gratitude to the local community for being accepted in Vranje in the best possible way.

“Some of them fled the war, some fled from the poverty, and they all want to live a dignified life. They are accepted well in Vranje. Their children go to local schools, and the aim of this activity was to get them closer to the citizens of Vranje, to show they are the same people as us”, said Milica Andjelkovic Jovanovic.

She also said that today’s activity of marking the Persian New Year was organized within the EU Support to Migration Management in Serbia.