Serbia: UNHCR Serbia Update, August 2019
• UNHCR and partners counselled over 2,300 asylum-seekers at over thirty sites throughout the country. Eleven asylum-seekers, including two unaccompanied or separated children (UASC), signed powers of attorney for UNHCR project lawyers to represent them in asylum procedures. UNHCR and partners also assisted asylum authorities with interpretation, cultural mediation and psychological assessments. 237 UASC benefitted from guardianship under the UNHCR project
• 1,240 foreigners registered their intention to seek asylum with the Ministry of Interior (MOI) of Serbia, now adding up to 7,396 during the first eight months of this year. Eight lodged substantive asylum claims with the Asylum Office (AO) of the MOI, now adding up to 169substantive new claims during the first eight months of this year. The AO decided on seven claims, granting refugee status to one and subsidiary protection to another asylum seeker, while rejecting five claims. In the first eight months of 2019, the AO granted protection to 29 persons.
• On 19 August, the United Nations Committee Against Torture declared Serbia responsible for violating Art. 3 and Art. 22 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment when it extradited an asylum-seeker on 25 December 2017. UNHCR project lawyers had represented this asylum seeker, trying to prevent his refoulement.
• Continuing its support to the implementation of the Regional Housing Programme, UNHCR joined refugees, the First Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Ivica Da?i?, the Serbian Commissioner for Refugees and Migration (SCRM), local authorities as well as representatives of donors and the OSCE in handing the keys to 20 new apartments each in Vrnja?ka Banja (3 August) and Temerin (22 August).
• The joint Local Integration Team of the SCRM and UNHCR conducted 32 home visits to refugees, preparing individual integration plans, and systematised legal information pertaining to local integration to produce a brochure with practical integration advice for refugees.
• UNHCR partner Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) alone counselled 95 refugees and asylum-seekers on local integration, obtained work permits for ten and ID cards for four, while UNHCR assisted the integration of 45 with cash-based interventions.
• UNHCR partner A Go-and-See Visit for eight internally displaced persons to Klinavac-Klinafc, Klina/e municipality in Kosovo1 , was organized by partner DRC on 8-9 August 2019.
• UNHCR Serbia compiled and issued monthly updates of its Statistical Snapshot and Joint Site Assessments. With over 41,000 views, the latter remained a most popular and trusted information product.
• A very high number of 1,169 asylum seekers alleged collective expulsions from neighbouring countries (399 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 358 from Croatia, 319 from Hungary and 93 from Romania). 64% of them alleged to have been denied access to asylum and 53% maltreatment by authorities of these countries.
• On 26 August, a 16 y.o. UASC from Afghanistan was apprehended by the Croatian police upon entering Croatia irregularly, as a part of a small group of UASC and adults. After his push-back to Serbia he had to receive medical treatment for a broken rib and thoracic concussion and articulated allegations of severe mistreatment at the hands of Croatian authorities. A subsequent press statement by the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration (SCRM) prompted a response by the Ministry of Interior of Croatia. On 28 August, Minister of Labour,
Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs Mr. Zoran ?or?evi? visited the UASC.
