London: World number one Novak Djokovic showed – and not for the first time – a more humane side to his personality.
After a ruthless 6-1, 6-1 thrashing of Japan’s Kei Nishikori on Sunday evening, the 28-year-old Serb was at his best at the post-match interaction with the media.
Asked about the massive humanitarian crisis following the flow of migrants into and through his native Serbia, Djokovic was well aware of the reality. “Well, what is happening in the Middle East has been some terrible circumstances with the war. I think out of 12 million people that live in Syria, I heard one-third of the nation has left the country. Many of them have passed through Serbia in order to get to their final destination in one of the western countries of the European Union, mostly Germany or Austria,” he noted.
“Serbia is basically on their trajectory. I could personally also experience, get close to them and see what kind of difficulties they’re going through on a daily basis. With UNICEF I’ve had one of the visits in one of the sites in Belgrade,” he related.
The visit, though, has not been all that pleasant as people and institutions have tried to reach out to the refugees in some way. “I think one of the hotels have left a space for the families to spend a few hours to freshen up, eat something and then carry on. The babies and kids have a play room before they continue their migration. It was really touching when I went there. It was really hard for me to experience that,” he related.
“Honestly, I’ve had many of the humanitarian or charity activities in my life. I have my own foundation that focuses on education. I’ve seen a lot because Serbia in the last 20 years has been through a lot of trouble, economic difficulties and war, and so on. But this was one of the most hurtful emotions and circumstances I could feel and that I could be experiencing,” the 28-year-old added.
The Serb then went on to narrate how he was taken aback during his visit as Unicef ambassador. “I was there playing with a child. And 30 seconds later the mother comes and she takes him away from me saying ‘we have to go, we have to leave now, we have to walk for I don’t know how many miles’. They don’t even know where they are going,” he related.
“I mean, what’s happening is terrible. You have to get to the bottom of this and we have to get to the cause. As far as I understand the cause is the war back in their country. You can’t blame these people. If they don’t have a house and have nothing, where are they going to go? Of course, they have to search for some better place to live,” Djokovic said.
“I think it’s an obligation of all the countries to give them this right, from the International Constitution of Human Rights. It’s very well written that you’re supposed to offer them at least a shelter,” he stressed.
And as a Serbian, Djokovic was proud of what his country has done so far in assisting in trying to solve the crisis. “I’m very proud as a Serbian seeing what my people have done for these migrants and people who have suffered so much. They offer them shelter, home, food and drink. Those are the most basic things in life,” Djokovic related.
“From my perspective, I’m only an athlete, obviously I’m following this as a human being, at the end of the day we all have to be humans and feel for one another. We have to put that in front of all the laws and borders and different political stuff,” he added.
