Madina will never know London, the city her Afghan family hoped to reach. The six-year-old’s body lies in a Serbian grave after she was struck by a train at the Balkan country’s border. The Husseinis left Afghanistan around two years ago with the aim of reaching Britain, joining thousands of migrants still crossing the “Balkan route” towards western Europe, although it was officially shut down in early 2016. But once in Croatia, Madina and five of her relatives were intercepted by Croatian police and sent back to the Serbian frontier, according to her mother Muslima Husseini — whose version of events is denied by Croatian authorities. The family found themselves retreating along a railway line in the dark. “We heard a very loud noise, a train that was coming quickly” from behind, the mother told AFP. Muslima recalls her panicked cries for her daughter, who was found lying in a pool of blood with her skull broken. After her death on November 20, Madina was laid to rest in Sid, a northern Serbian border town. Her grave sits away from the Orthodox tombs that dominate the cemetery. Nearby are three other small piles of earth for other fallen migrants: Hamidi Hadere (1930-2015), Abu Shafar Mustafa (1970-2016) and a Mohamadi, whose first name is already unreadable (1946-2016) on the wooden sign. Madina’s “avoidable death” is a fresh reminder to the European Union and regional authorities “that people are still in danger (in) the Balkans,” said Andrea Contenta of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Serbia. “The practice of pushing people back at EU borders continues to endanger people’s lives,” he told AFP. This year, to the end of November, 143 migrants are known to have died between Turkey and the European Union, according to MSF. Some were victims of car or train accidents, some drowned, and others committed suicide. But beyond the public data, “we do not know how many people have lost their lives across the region,” Contenta said. Rahmat Shah Husseini, 39, sobs over the icy earth where his daughter was buried. He then flicks through his phone to a photograph of Madina, with short hair, a cheeky smile and pink trainers that barely touched the ground as she sits. The picture was taken two days before she died. “She often asked ‘Are we there? Is this London?’” the father said. He explained how he set off from the Afghan capital with 14 members of his family after receiving death threats for having worked for US forces. Published in Daily Times, December 10th 2017.