Short overview of the reception system

Author

Nikola Kovačević

Short overview of the reception system

The Commissariat for Refugees and Migration (CRM) is in charge of governing asylum and reception centres in Serbia.[1] There are 7 Asylum Centres (AC) and 11 Reception Centres (RC) which can be put in use for accommodation of refugees, asylum seekers and other categories of people on the move.  What is important to note is that most of these facilities were established in 2015/2016 with significant financial support provided to Serbia from the EU, but also by international organisations such as the UNHCR and IOM, individual countries/embassies and agencies. The main purpose of these facilities was temporary accommodation of hundreds of thousands of persons who transited through Serbia in 2015/2016. For those reasons, the structure and materials available in the reception facilities are mostly designed for a short-term stay.

In 2023, a total of 17 asylum and reception centres were operational for entire or at least the part of the year. Asylum Centre in Bogovađa and Reception Centre in Bela Palanka – Divljana were not operational at all.[2]

In 2024, a total of 12 asylum and reception centres were operational for at least part of the year. RC Principovci was designated for accommodation of UASC after RC Šid had been closed. RC Šid was in operation only during the first half of the year, and that was also the case with RCs Pirot, Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad. On the other hand, RCs Bujanovac and Preševo ​​were active throughout the year. As for asylum centres, AC Tutin was closed in the second half of the year, while ACs Krnjača, Obrenovac, Sjenica and Vranje were operational throughout the entire year. At the end of 2024, ACs Krnjača, Obrenovac, Vranje and Sjenica, as well as RCs Preševo, Bujanovac and Principovci.[3] The reception Centre in Bela Palanka – Divljana was permanently closed.

Even though the official data of the CRM indicated that total capacities of all reception facilities were 8,155 in 2022, in 2023 and 2024, the capacities outlined show more realistic picture – 5,625, plus additional 500 beds which can be secured in AC Bogovađa and RC Divljana. Thus, around 6,125 beds could have been secured if needed in 2023.[4] In 2024, this number was 6,846. In saying that, the reception capacity is mostly measured in terms of available beds and not in accordance with certain standards, for instance, EUAA Guidelines,[5] or other standards developed by other bodies such as CPT,[6] or the CESCR.[7]

It remains unclear why capacity fluctuates every year, but it is important to outline that no entity has ever performed an independent, non-biased, impartial, thorough and objective assessment of reception conditions in Serbia and in relation to various human rights criteria which imply adequate housing, safety, privacy, hygiene, food, medical assistance, safeguards for vulnerable groups, access to other services, etc. Only after this assessment realistic and human rights-based capacities can be determined and they are significantly lower the official one.

In 2024, AC Krnjača was mostly accommodating vulnerable applicants: families with small children, persons with disabilities, persons with health and psychosocial needs, LGBTQI+ applicants, SGBV survivors and others. AC Obrenovac[8] and AC Sjenica accommodate single males, but most of them were not willing to apply for asylum. As of 20 April 2022, AC Vranje[9] accommodated on average 40 to 70 refugees from Ukraine.

It is also worth reiterating that the asylum procedure was mainly conducted in asylum centres, in 2024 mainly in AC Krnjača and sometimes in AC Obrenovac, while AC Sjenica was visited several times at the end of 2024. Thus, most of the people accommodated in AC Sjenica do not have effective access to an asylum interview, but also they can only lodge asylum applications in writing. This contributes to an extensive length of the first instance asylum procedure.

On the other hand, RCs in Adaševci, Sombor, Principovci, Šid, Kikinda, Subotica and other facilities located closer to borders with Romania, Croatia or Hungary were closed down in the first quarter of 2024 and only RC Principovci remains operational for UASCs. Accommodation in these facilities did not require registration certificates and these were usually large-scale facilities designed for a short-term stay in tents or other improvised shelters. RC Pirot, RC Bosilegrad and RC Dimitrovgrad are located at the entry points from Bulgaria, while RC Preševo and RC Bujanovac are located in the south, in the vicinity of the border with North Macedonia. RC Preševo and RC Bujanovac remained open, while the eastern centres were closed until the end of July 2024.

According to Klikaktiv, most of the squats in the border area with EU countries which were active in the period 2022-2023 were empty in 2024.[10]

In a 2022 press statement, the Government declared that ‘since the start of the migrant crisis in 2015 until today, including the grant agreement worth €36 million signed today, the EU has helped Serbia with €200 million for strengthening institutional capacity for migration management.’[11] It was further highlighted that since 2015, more than 1.5 million refugees and migrants passed through Serbia and over 10 million overnight stays were made.[12] Out of €160 million provided before the signing of the new agreement in October 2022, €130 million was designated for migration management and for the prevention of illegal migration, while €30 million were allocated to border security.[13]

One of the major issues in 2024 was the fact that most of the registered foreigners were referred to AC Sjenica and AC Tutin, two asylum centres in which applicants’ asylum procedure cannot be conducted effectively, as they generally do not organise asylum interviews. Namely, in 2023, the Asylum Office visited these two facilities only once,[14] even though several dozen persons lodged their asylum applications in writing, while in 2024, AC Sjenica was visited several times at the end of the year. In comparison to 2022, the CRM and MoI did not allow transfers from these two centres to AC Krnjača or AC Obrenovac, where the Asylum Office can organise asylum interviews, unless people belonged to one of the vulnerable categories (SGBV or LGBTQI+ for instance), when they are allowed to move to AC Krnjača.

As outlined in the previous parts of the Report and according to the Asylum Act, a foreigner obtains the status of asylum seeker only after having lodged an asylum application.[15] Prior to that, persons issued with registration certificates are not considered to be asylum seekers and thus are not entitled to rights and obligations envisaged in the Asylum Act, which encompass the right to accommodation.[16] Accordingly, even though the vast majority of foreigners were accommodated in asylum and reception centres in the course of 2024, they were not explicitly entitled to it under the Asylum Act, the Foreigners Act or any other law governing the field of asylum and migration.

Only 219 out of 19,603 foreigners detected by the CRM were officially entitled to stay in reception facilities, as they lodged asylum applications or subsequent asylum applications. This represents a continuation of the trend observed in previous years, which implies that the vast majority of persons in need of international protection who have been transiting through the territory of Serbia since 2008 have been in a legal limbo, deprived of any status, but provided with their minimum existential needs in Serbia. Their stay in Asylum and Reception Centres was tolerated – rather than regulated – by legal framework. Still, it is important to note that the final draft of Amendments to the Asylum Act intends to remedy this situation, as it recognises a new category of persons in need of international protection – persons issued with the registration certificate who did not lodge an asylum application and who will be afforded with most of the material reception conditions.[17] The election of the new Government in May 2024 can potentially bring those amendments to the Parliament’s agenda.

Asylum seekers who are granted asylum are entitled to stay in asylum centres up to one year after their decision on asylum became final or if they are provided with financial support they have to leave from the moment the support is granted.[18] In practice, most of these people already live at a private address when they receive a positive decision.

Finally, and taking into consideration that there is no vulnerability assessment upon admission to reception facilities of the newly arrived foreigners, many vulnerable foreign nationals remain unidentified. Even when they are identified, in most cases they are not granted additional support or different conditions than other less vulnerable categories of people on the move.

[1] Article 23 Asylum Act; Chapters II and III Migration Management Act.

[2] Data obtained from UNHCR office in Serbia and practice-informed observation by IDEAS.

[3] Data obtained from UNHCR office in Serbia and practice-informed observation by IDEAS.

[4] Dana obtained by the UNHCR office in Serbia.

[5] EASO, EASO Guidance on reception conditions: operational standards and indicators, September 2016, available at: http://bit.ly/3j1XabQ.

[6] See for example CPT, Report to the Greek Government on the visit to Greece carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 10 to 19 April 2018, 19 February 2019, CPT/Inf (2019) 4, available at: https://bit.ly/3gbcH7y, paras. 103-105.

[7] CESCR, General Comment No. 4: The Right to Adequate Housing (Art. 11 (1) of the Covenant), 13 December 1991, E/1992/23, available at: http://bit.ly/2KyNBRC.

[8] Decision of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, no. 02–5650/2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3nqLK4Z.

[9] Ibid. 

[10] Klikaktiv, Under the Line of Marginalization: The Shadowing Games and the Erosion of Rights for People on the Move, available here, 42.

[11] The Government of the Republic Serbia, Press Statement, EU to help Serbia prevent illegal migration, 7 October 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/41w4qli.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Information obtained from IDEAS field officers.

[15] Article 2 (1) (4) Asylum Act.

[16] Article 48 Asylum Act.

[17] The amendments to the Asylum Act are available in Serbian on the following link: https://bit.ly/3yepU9U.

[18] Article 61 Asylum Act.