BELGRADE, Serbia -- Vlade Divac, the retired NBA basketball player, is up against his toughest opponent ever in his quest to end the refugee crisis in Serbia, home to the largest number of refugees in Europe, while distancing himself from the political stalemate that has gripped his native nation.
More than 300,000 refugees and displaced persons from Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo remain in Serbia, of which 6,700 still live in deplorable conditions in dilapidated schools, barracks, shipping containers and other forms of temporary housing.
Many of these refugees, who fled to Serbia from the wars that ravaged the former Yugoslavia in the late 1990s, have endured undignified living conditions for more than a decade. It's not uncommon for several families to we crammed into single rooms of 10 square meters or less, all sharing the same bathroom.