NGO: Serbia does not have a fair procedure for asylum seekers

During the presentation of the Annual report on obtaining asylum in Serbia in 2016, the representatives of the Belgrade Center for Human Rights said on Monday that Serbia still does not have a fair mechanism for the asylum procedure.

“We (Serbia) have a large number of refugees and migrants whose status is not defined by law. Improving the right to asylum is an important segment when it comes to the Chapter 24 in the talks with the EU.

There is some progress in the procedure, but more needs to be done”, said the Belgrade Center for Human Rights’s lawyer Lena Petrovic.

She said that during 2016, 12,281 people showed the intention for obtaining asylum in Serbia, but only 574 applied for it. Out of 574 applications, only 42 were positively solved.

Petrovic pointed out that the data show there is still no fair mechanism and procedure for obtaining the asylum in Serbia. According to her, those refugees and migrants who did not express a wish to apply for the asylum because they are only passing through Serbia to reach the EU, are in a “legal vacuum.”

“Border control and the way refugees are treated in the Western Balkans have become more rigorous since March 2016. We are witnessing that the countries on this route have introduced numerous ad hoc measures which are contrary to the European Chapters on human rights and right for asylum,” said Nikola Kovacevic from the Belgrade Center for Human Rights.

In March 2016, the European Union and Turkey made an agreement that all the new migrants crossing illegally from Turkey to Greece would be returned to Turkey. Also, many of the countries on the Balkan route have closed their borders. Some even closed the borders physically, like Hungary, in order to prevent the refugees from movement.

Kovacevic said that Serbia also joined the countries that have more rigorous attitude towards refugees and migrants, stating that, since last year, the combined army and police patrols have prevented about 18,000 people from entering Serbia.

“The question is how these people were returned and whether their human rights were violated. This practice can lead to liability given that the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg has already ruled against Hungary for virtually the same practice, which is also carried out on the borders of all Balkan countries,” said Kovacevic.

He concluded that other Western Balkan countries may be prosecuted by this Court since they have a similar “pattern” of practice in controlling the borders.

In the beginning of March, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Hungary had violated several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights by returning two Bangladeshi asylum seekers back to Serbia in 2015. The Court found that the asylum seekers were unlawfully deprived of their liberty and that the conditions in detention unit were inhumane and degrading.

M. Pantovic