A new Amnesty report has highlighted dangers for refugees stranded in Serbia and Macedonia, after being rejected by the European Union.
It says thousands of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants - including children - are suffering abuse and extortion at the hands of the authorities and criminal gangs after the EU asylum system "leaves them trapped without protection in Serbia and Macedonia".
It finds that an increasing number of people are being left stranded in legal limbo across the Balkans - with the situation being made worse by push-backs or deportations at every border, restricted access to asylum en-route and a lack of safe and legal routes into the EU.
"Refugees fleeing war and persecution make this journey across the Balkans in the hope of finding safety in Europe only to find themselves victims of abuse and exploitation and at the mercy of failing asylum systems," said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International's deputy director for Europe and Central Asia.
"Serbia and Macedonia have become a sink for the overflow of refugees and migrants that nobody in the EU seems willing to receive," he added.
The busy route taken by some refugees | Image: Amnesty
The report is based on four research missions to Serbia, Hungary, Greece and Macedonia between July 2014 and March 2015.
More than 100 refugees and migrants were interviewed, and their testimonies reveal - what Amnesty says is - shocking conditions that face those who travel the western Balkans route.
This route has now overtaken the Mediterranean to become the busiest irregular passage to the EU.
The number of people caught crossing the Serbia-Hungary border alone has risen by more than 2,500% since 2010 - from 2,370 to 60,602.
The route - which takes refugees and migrants by sea from Turkey to Greece, and then over land across Macedonia to Serbia and into Hungary - is less deadly than the sea crossing from Libya but is still dangerous.
Since January 2014, 123 refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants have drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Greece and 24 were killed on railways.
Sian Jones is author of the report. She told the Pat Kenny Show here on Newstalk that some of those found are detained to testify against people smugglers.
