A 21-year-old from Dover, England, who declared himself president of his own country on an unclaimed strip of land along the Danube River, has received an award from a United Nations-linked body for humanitarian work.
Daniel Jackson founded the Free Republic of Verdis on May 30, 2019, after he and a group of friends, then just 14 years old, noticed that a border dispute between Croatia and Serbia had left several pockets of land along the river unclaimed by either country. Jackson declared one of those pockets, known on maps as Pocket-3, his own nation and installed himself as president.
Jackson was honored at a gala held at the UN Delegates Dining Hall in New York, where the Institute of Public Policy and Diplomacy Research presented him with an award recognizing aid Verdis provided on the Ivory Coast. He delivered an acceptance speech at the event.
“It definitely was intense. It was a very interesting experience. There were quite a lot of high end people there. It was very nerve wrecking,” Jackson said. “Being only 21 years old I am still sort of getting used to this experience of turning up to these events with such interesting and influential people.”
Verdis was subsequently invited to address the United Nations General Assembly Youth Mobilization Segment on October 9. The nation’s Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Jeffrey Li, spoke in Jackson’s place, outlining Verdis’s past projects and future goals.
“Every time we go to New York we always get a decent amount of dialogue and connections,” Jackson said. “Having the opportunity to have my colleague speak directly at the UNGA youth forum was amazing. It allowed him to open up more connections for Verdis particularly around youth involvement, aid, and things like that.”
A Nation in Exile
Verdis covers roughly 125 acres, which Jackson says would make it the second-smallest country in the world, trailing only Vatican City. The territory can only be reached by boat from Osijek, and efforts to actually settle there have failed. Jackson himself is now barred from entering Croatia.
He says Croatian authorities have gone further, installing cameras along the Verdisian coastline to block access from the Serbian side, which he says has effectively turned his government into one operating “in exile.”
“We are still thriving. We are making a lot of progress, but we are still blockaded,” Jackson said. “We are carrying out Verdis’s values even while we continue to operate in exile. Croatia are still quite tough on us. They have really cracked down regarding Verdis government officials being able to enter Verdis. They are very much watching us. We are really hoping that the blockade could be lifted soon. We are still working towards it.”
Despite the standoff with Croatia, Jackson says he has made progress with Serbian officials, who have accepted him for citizenship.
Jackson, who holds both British and Australian citizenship, has built out the trappings of a functioning state: passports, a flag, a coat of arms, a full cabinet, a body of laws, and merchandise. Verdis has opened two embassies, one in Dover and one in Novi Sad, Serbia. Its official languages are English, Croatian, and Serbian, and it uses the euro as its currency.
The project claims 400 official citizens and says it receives more than 1,000 emails a month from people seeking citizenship, a volume officials say they can’t accommodate given the project’s limited land.
Jackson, who gave up a day job designing Roblox worlds to run Verdis full time, said the idea began as little more than a game among friends.
“Verdis was an idea I had when I was 14, it was just a bit of an experiment at first with a few mates,” he said. “To the naked eye it is just a lot of forest, but when you realise that you are in a country you have created it is magical. I am very amazed by it but I am not surprised by how well it is pushing because there is an amazing team behind us and the support has not stopped.”
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