A 21st-century migrant's checklist: food, shelter, smartphone

Belgrade, Serbia

THE tens of thousands of migrants who have flooded into the Balkans in recent weeks need food, water and shelter, just like the millions displaced by war the world over. But there is also one other thing they swear they cannot live without: a smartphone-charging station.

"Every time I go to a new country, I buy a SIM card and activate the Internet and download the map to locate myself," Osama Aljasem, a 32-year- old music teacher from Deir al-Zour in Syria, explained as he sat on a broken park bench in Belgrade, staring at his smartphone and plotting his next move into northern Europe.

"I would never have been able to arrive at my destination wi…