The Kosovo conflict intensified at the end of the 1990s. Ten thousand people were displaced. When all efforts to bring peace to the region failed, NATO started air strikes on Serbian military bases and strategic targets in Serbia on March 24, 1999. After 11 weeks, Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic finally backed down.

Protests against Belgrade's attempts to undermine the rights of the Albanian majority in Kosovo began in the mid-1980s. The 1990s saw a massive increase in Serbian repression. Ibrahim Rugova (l.), who took the reins of Kosovo's political movement in 1989, called for non-violent resistance and sought to convince Slobodan Milosevic (r.) to change course — to no avail.

An armed resistance formed in Kosovo, in which the self-proclaimed Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) began a brutal guerrilla war. The UCK undertook violent attacks on Serbia as well as against Albanians it considered to be collaborators. Serbia retaliated by torching houses and looting businesses. Hundreds of thousands of people fled.

The war grew increasingly brutal and Serbian forces stepped up attacks on civilians in an attempt to destroy the UCK and its supporters. Scores of people fled into the forests. Thousands of Kosovo Albanians were loaded onto trains and trucks to be transported to the border, where they were thrown out without passports or other personal documents that could prove they were from Kosovo.

In February 1999, the USA, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and Germany convened a meeting of warring parties in Rambouillet, France, in an attempt to establish autonomy for Kosovo. Kosovan representatives accepted the proposal, yet Serbia was unwilling to compromise. The negotiations collapsed.

On March 24, 1999, NATO began bombing military and strategic targets in Serbia and Kosovo in an attempt to end violence against the Albanians. Germany also participated in the bombing. "Operation Allied Force" became the first war in NATO's 50-year history — one conducted without the backing of the UN Security Council. Russia harshly criticized the intervention.

Beyond military targets, NATO also bombed supply lines, train tracks and bridges. Over the course of 79 days and nights, allied forces flew more than 37,000 sorties. Some 20,000 missiles and bombs rained down on Serbia. Many civilians were killed: "collateral damage," in the words of NATO.

Industrial sites were also targeted. In Pancevo, near Belgrade, NATO bombs hit a chemical and fertilizer factory. Massive amounts of toxic substances were released into rivers, the ground and the skies — resulting in grave health risks for the nearby civilian population. Moreover, Serbia accused NATO of deploying uranium-enriched munitions as well as cluster and fragment bombs.

State television offices in Belgrade were attacked in an attempt to deprive Slobodan Milosevic of his most important propaganda tool. Although the Serbian government was warned of an impending attack in time, Belgrade withheld that information. Sixteen people were killed when the site was bombed.

NATO bombs in Kosovo inadvertently hit a group of Albanian refugees, killing an estimated 80 people. NATO also claimed that the accidental bombardment of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was another case of "collateral damage." Four people were killed in the misguided attack, leading to a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Washington.

In early June, Belgrade signaled that Slobodan Milosevic might be prepared to surrender, prompting NATO to end its campaign on June 19. The final toll of the war: thousands of dead and 860,000 refugees. Serbia's economy and large swaths of its infrastructure were destroyed. Kosovo was put under UN administration.

Light floods into the refugee squat "The Barracks" in Belgrade, and the toxic smoke from burning rubbish crawls in, too. Before the site was cleared last month, the semi-collapsed structures provided shelter to 1,200 refugees. "When I was covering the crisis there, I spoke to hundreds of people. All the migrants had the same goal, however: to find a new, better life in Europe," Crawford told DW.

The Barracks were home to Afghans and Pakistanis who decided to flee poverty and terrorism in their countries. "When the western forces pulled out of Afghanistan, the Taliban came out of hiding and began to take reprisals on those deemed 'enemy collaborators' - the members of the Afghan National Army or anyone seen as having helped the West," Crawford explained.

Upon entering Europe earlier this year, the refugees had to cope with another problem: the cold winter and spring weather. The grey blankets handed over to these migrants by the UNHCR thus became essential for survival. One such grey blanket made of acrylic fibers or polyester can help people withstand temperatures as low as 0°C and shield them from the cold wind.

"In the Barracks, you could see thousands of blankets everywhere. The people slept under piles of them, others used them as additional coats to stave off the cold," Crawford said, adding that he had not met a refugee in Serbia who did not use one. To this man, the blanket was indispensable as it accounted for his only possession, apart from the clothes he was wearing.

Shaped into tents, curtains, and even torn apart and worn as socks - the blankets became not just a symbol of the refugee crisis, without which thousands would have died over the winter, but also an omnipresent item of migrants’ everyday life. Here Crawford captured a common scene: One man heats and pours the water, one passes the soap, and another stands by with the blanket to dry him off.

"Usually, the blanket follows people wherever they go in Serbia, but sometimes they leave them behind so as not to slow them down. The owner had left the blanket on the train tracks as he jumped on the train the previous night," said Crawford. According to Serbian authorities, several hundred of the camp inhabitants have been unaccounted for since May.

The situation is alarming, considering that the official numbers say that around 40 percent of the refugee camp population were children and teenagers. "This was a young man calling his mother. For me, it brought together the family aspect of the refugee crisis: All those men in the refugee camps are someone’s son, brother, or father," said Crawford.

Despite overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions, Crawford said the refugee camps in Serbia were basic but adequate compared to others in the Balkans: "I visited several of them during my time in Serbia and found them to be well-managed, given the situation." He also mentioned that the Serbian Commissariat of Refugees tried to always have translators, doctors, and other trained staff present.

Although he views the situation as stable for now, Crawford criticized the EU’s attitude toward the crisis: "Serbia should receive a lot more funding to contain the situation and construct camps to house asylum seekers in humane conditions. With Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary refusing to accept refugee quotas, the idea of a European-wide refugee resettlement policy is in tatters."

Crawford called for a speedier asylum application process to make it easier to enter the EU legally. But what do the refugees need to improve the situation? "One answer stands out: 'People in Europe complain about us and our behavior. Why don’t they give us teaching while we are here now? Tell us what is acceptable and what is not, tell us the consequences of our actions if we break the law!'"