The Equal Rights Trust (ERT), Praxis and Sandžak Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms call civil society organisations (CSOs) to participate in monitoring and documenting cases of discrimination in Serbia.

We are looking for CSOs from Serbia that wish to receive funds for conducting monitoring and documenting cases of discrimination in Serbia. The funds will be allocated as five sub-grants. The amount of one sub-grant ranges from 2,000 EUR to 6,000 EUR, and the average amount is 5,000 EUR. 

Applications can be submitted by 31 May 2017 at 2:00 p.m. The selected organisations will start working on 8 June 2017. 

Monitoring and documenting cases of discrimination are the activities of the project “Improving the equality legal and policy framework in Serbia and monitoring implementation of equality norms and policies“, implemented by ERT, Praxis and Sandžak Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms with the support of the European Union through EIDHR in the period December 2016 - December 2018.

Download the call for grant applications and the application form here.

A report published today by the European Network on Statelessness (ENS) on the use of immigration detention warns that stateless people are often detained for months and even years, without any real prospect of their cases being resolved. This is because immigration systems do not have appropriate procedures in place to identify those who are left without nationality and to protect stateless people.

The report calls on European governments to reform their immigration and detention systems to comply with their international human rights obligations and end the arbitrary detention of stateless people. States need to put in place procedures to identify people without nationality so that they don’t end up locked up in limbo.

Chris Nash, Director of the European Network on Statelessness said:

“Across Europe a failure by states to put in place effective systems to identify stateless people leaves them exposed to repeated and prolonged detention. These men, women and children fall between the cracks, because no country will recognise them as nationals. This is preventable, and today we are publishing a clear agenda for change which will help end this travesty.”

Angela Li Rosi, Deputy Director of UNHCR Bureau for Europe said:

“Stateless persons across Europe risk serious violations of their right to liberty and security of person. They can face repeated and prolonged detention not because they committed a crime but because they are not allowed to stay in the country. They are told they don’t belong anywhere. Their children are invisible, their families do not exist. UNHCR will continue to work with ENS to support States in ending this human suffering in Europe.”

A statement signed by civil society organisations and leading lawyers and academics from over 30 European countries will be sent to governments highlighting that consensus is building in Europe that the current use of immigration detention is unsustainable, harmful, and, in many cases, unlawful.

Download the report here.

There were two important new developments in March. One refers to the amendments to the Law on Asylum in Hungary, under which all asylum seekers who enter Hungary legally will be detained in the camps at the border with Serbia. This applies to single men, families with children and UASC older than 14. UASC under the age of 14 will be placed in the open-type accommodation in other parts of the country. Detention in the closed-type centres, i.e. mandatory detention, will last until the completion of the asylum procedure. Any person who enters Hungary illegally, bypassing the transit zone, will be pushed back. The second development is the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in case of Ilias and Ahmed v. Hungary. In its judgment of 14 March 2017, the ECtHR found that Hungary violated several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights by detaining illegally two refugees from Bangladesh after their legal entry to Hungary in September 2015. During the shortened asylum procedure, they were kept in the detention unit Roszke in the conditions that can be considered inhuman and degrading. After the procedure, they were expelled to Serbia in an informal manner.   Although UNHCR proclaimed Serbia an unsafe third country in 2012, the Hungarian government adopted a decree in 2015 according to which Serbia is a safe third country - Decree no. 191/2015. (VII.21) on safe countries of origin and safe third countries.

Unlike the accommodation capacity in the reception and asylum centres, the number of newly arrived refugees/migrants continued to grow. As a result, the number of refugees/migrants staying in Belgrade increased. A large number of refugees/migrants are still trying to get hold of the EU with the help of smugglers or independently. On a daily basis, Praxis’ mobile team had a chance to talk with the refugees/migrants who had been pushed back from Hungary, Croatia and Romania, often by force, without the possibility to seek asylum. Hygiene of the abandoned warehouses in which refugees/migrants stay was improved thanks to the efforts of several organisations and volunteers. Another improvement consists of the introduction of breakfast, made possible by Oxfam, so that now refugees/migrants have three meals every day. 

Praxis continued its field work in March and provided a total of 659 newly arrived refugees and migrants (376 adults and 283 children) in Belgrade with relevant information, which is a slightly higher number of arrivals than in the previous month. Out of the total number of newly arrived refugees and migrants, 288 persons or 43.7% of them were from Afghanistan. A total of 55 newly arrived refugees and migrants, mainly families, were from Syria, which accounts for 8.3% of the total number. This percentage is smaller than the percentage from the previous period. 119 refugees came from Iraq (18.1%), mainly families, which is a higher percentage than in the previous period. 112 refugees (17%) were from Pakistan, all single men (75) and UASC (37), like in the previous period. A total of 52 refugees (7.9%) came from other countries - Sri Lanka, Libya, Egypt, Palestine.

Download the Protection Monitoring Report HERE.

It is estimated that around 1,300 refugee children and unaccompanied migrants are exposed to the risk of exploitation, violence and trafficking in human beings due to an increasingly restrictive border control policy and often inadequate response of the social protection system in the countries along the so-called Balkan route. This is the conclusion of a report published by the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children, in cooperation with 10 national and international organisations involved in providing assistance to refugees and migrants.

The social protection systems in the countries along the route often fail to identify and adequately support these extremely vulnerable children, including nine-year olds, who, fleeing from the war and poverty, cross thousands of kilometres without parents or guardians. These children are often "invisible" and in some cases, even when the social protection system identifies them, they are placed in inadequate conditions, including detention in some countries.

Risks to children traveling in this way have been further increased following the implementation of the agreement between the European Union and Turkey, which led to the closure of the borders along the so-called Balkan route. Due to these restrictive measures, unaccompanied children are forced to take desperate moves, thus relaying on traffickers or smugglers, whom they perceive as the only way to continue their journey.

The report further states that in this way some of these children become victims of exploitation, because the smugglers and traffickers are forcing them to work so they earn the money to continue their travel, and they are often being abused. Under these circumstances the children get neglected and exposed to enormous stress and danger. Even though they are trying to act boldly, their stories and drawings reveal harrowing details about their experiences on the road, for which they thought, would lead them to safety.

The social protection systems of the countries of the region, which need to identify and provide protection to unaccompanied children, face difficulties in their efforts to respond to the needs of vulnerable children whose numbers have been growing since the beginning of the crisis in 2015. In Serbia, the new demands have been met by increasing the accommodation capacities for unaccompanied children and employing additional social workers to provide them with support. However, additional efforts need to be invested to establish systemic solutions for the adequate protection of this group of children.

"Children need comprehensive support tailored to their needs“, says Jelena Besendić from Save the Children. "It is almost impossible for them to safely and legally continue their journey towards the EU countries. Many of these children decide to stay outside the system, and therefore do not get support from humanitarian organisations, and then often become targets of smugglers who use threats to manipulate them. Thus they become exposed to the risk of becoming victims of violence, abuse or exploitation.“ 

It is necessary to increase accommodation capacities in all countries along the route, and provide accommodation intended exclusively for unaccompanied children. Even when they are identified as children, unaccompanied minors are often placed in some centres together with adult refugees, unknown to them, or in the accommodation similar to detention, as is the case in Bulgaria and Hungary.

It often happens that unaccompanied children are placed under the guardianship of the employees of Social Welfare Centres who are overloaded because of simultaneously handling several similar cases, who lack sufficient experience or training for working with refugee and migrant children, and who are therefore unable to support them in accordance with applicable standards. Some children also complain that they are not sufficiently familiar with their rights or with the legal options available to them.

"Every child must get all the help and protection that it needs. The governments of the countries along the route have to improve their system of support to this most vulnerable group, but before doing so, we have to ensure that these governments get necessary support and financial means to be able to handle the crises. The European Union and EU Member States must fulfill the commitments they have made and promise to adequately respond to the needs of these children. This also includes the resettlement of unaccompanied children to the EU countries as well as the reunification with their families,” said Ashly Lovett from IRC. “The governments who are doing so, must discontinue with the practice of placing the children in detention, and should assign trained guardians to unaccompanied children. If this measures are not implemented, the children who have already suffered traumas due to war, conflict and difficult journey, will be put in an even more difficult position, because there is no safe and legal way for them, they are not being adequately protected, and they are desperate to move on.”  The report was coordinated by the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children, and its creation was supported by NGOs Atina, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, Centre for Youth Integration, Ideas, Infor Park, Novi Sad Humanitarian Centre, Otvorena porta, PIN, Praxis and Terre des hommes.

You can read the summary of the reports in Serbian here.
The case studies in English are available here.
You can read the integral report in English here.

Today, we are celebrating the International Roma Day. Roma men and women are still the most vulnerable majority group in Serbia. The results achieved so far in improving their position have not yet removed some of the basic obstacles that impede their equal access to rights and inclusion in all social activities.

The Human Rights Committee, in its Concluding observations as of March this year, again expressed its concern that despite the efforts of the state to solve the problem, Roma are still facing widespread discrimination and exclusion, high unemployment rate, forced evictions and segregation in education and housing.

Our Roma fellow citizens, the residents of informal settlement in Cukaricka suma, welcome the International Roma Day this year in the settlement where living conditions are beneath human dignity, in the settlement surrounded by barriers that impede the access to it. Container settlements established as a temporary solution for the Roma evicted from informal settlement, have been in the same place for years. More than 50% of Roma girls get married before their 18th birthday, and problem of child, early and forced marriage almost exclusively affects the Roma community.  Many Roma still do not have all valid personal documents and do not have access to basic rights. There is no effective free legal aid system, and for many Roma it is one of preconditions to access their rights. According to the annual report of the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, more than 40% of the total number of discrimination complaints on the basis of national affiliation and ethnic origin refer to discrimination against Roma. The precise data on the extent of unemployment do not even exist.

We appeal to competent institutions to accelerate the process of solving of the remaining problems, to responsibly, efficiently and systematically approach to improving of the position of Roma men and women. Also, we call for respect and promotion of human rights, intercultural values, dialogue, solidarity and human dignity.

We wish happy International Roma Day to Roma citizens!