In Serbia, only one asylum request has been approved in the first five months of this year, in the form of “subsidiary protection” for one person from Burundi, the Asylum Protection and Assistance Center announced on the occasion of World Refugee Day, June 20.
The Director of the Center, Radoš Đurović, told the Beta agency that in the first five months of this year, 189 people expressed their intention to seek asylum, and 59 requests were submitted, and that “only one asylum in the form of subsidiary protection was granted to one person from Burundi.”
He assessed that this also indicates a difficult access to the asylum procedure, as refugees cannot ensure that their request is considered and that the procedure is fast and efficient.
Đurović stated that, according to the Center’s data, most people seeking asylum came from Egypt, Afghanistan, Syria, Russia, Palestine, Iraq, Morocco, and Pakistan.
He added that most people passing through Serbia came from Afghanistan, Syria, and Turkey, followed by North Africa and Pakistan.
He said that more than 9,000 people have passed through Serbia this year, and if this trend continues, by the end of the year, according to the Center’s estimates, the total number will be around 30,000.
“Temporary protection has been granted or extended to 881 people coming from war-torn Ukraine, and about 21,000 Ukrainians are currently residing in Serbia,” he said.
He also said that according to the Center’s data, there are currently 45,973 people from Russia in Serbia, so in addition to refugees from Asia and Africa, there are refugees from Europe, “and these are significant numbers and a diverse population.”
“Their position regarding the asylum procedure is difficult; refugees cannot independently ensure that their asylum request is considered and that they have an accelerated and efficient procedure, and they cannot do so without free professional legal aid, which is scarce,” Đurović noted.
He noted that, in the context of access to asylum, people in Vojvodina can hardly even submit an asylum request, because “they wait for weeks and months for their request to be submitted and then considered…”
He also stated that “in this way, the process can last for years,” especially since the Administrative Court makes decisions on requests very slowly in the third instance.
“There is also the trend of closing migrant camps that continues in Serbia, and by the end of June, the Asylum Center in Krnjača will also be closed, so we will be left with four reception centers: in Obrenovac, Sjenica, Preševo, and Bujanovac, out of 17 that there once were,” Đurović said.
He believes that “this is not smart” due to the worsening situation in the world, especially the new war between Israel and Iran and the first signs of new displacement from that direction.
“When we talk about integration, we can say that refugees from Ukraine have an advantage as they have the right to work immediately upon receiving temporary protection, unlike refugees from Africa and Asia who can only do so after submitting an asylum request,” Đurović said.
According to him, the advantage for Ukrainians is the proximity of language and culture and their residence in cities.
“It is necessary for the temporary protection of Ukrainians to grow into a permanent solution; we are witnessing that temporary protection is extended from year to year, and this is a great uncertainty for these people because they have to receive new decisions… and there is also a problem with employers,” he said.
According to Đurović, it is necessary to enable a permanent solution for people from Ukraine – to grant them protection for a much longer period or to grant them asylum.
“It is also necessary to increase the capacities of reception and asylum centers around larger urban centers, increase the staff of the Asylum Office, and enable unobstructed submission of asylum requests after people are accommodated in reception centers,” he said.
Đurović also believes that it is necessary for the Administrative Court to improve its capacities regarding asylum requests and to form a special department that would process these requests and research information about the countries from which these people come.
He also assessed that the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, which now functions independently, should be brought under one of the ministries of the Government of Serbia.
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Source: N1; Photo: Sora AI prompt by Serbian Times