Within the Project “Contribution to Sustainability of Return of Roma from Sweden and Other Countries in Europe to Serbia“, funded by the Swedish Migration Board, Praxis issued a report Access to Rights and Integration of Returnees on the Basis of the Readmission Agreements in August 2011.

The gravest problems that the returnee population is facing appear in the areas identified as a priority also in the 2009 Strategy for the Reintegration of Returnees on the basis of the Readmission Agreements. These are: access to personal documents and registration of permanent and temporary residence, education, employment, health care and social protection, and housing.

In addition to the returnees on the basis of the readmission agreements, there are other categories of population in Serbia such as the displaced persons and the members of Roma ethnic minority who are in an extremely difficult situation and whose successful social inclusion depends on removal of obstacles in the aforementioned areas.

Bearing in mind that Roma constitute the majority of the returnee population, Praxis launched a Swedish Migration Board – funded project Contribution to Sustainability of Return of Roma from Sweden and Other Countries in Europe to Serbia in September 2010. The aim of the project was to raise awareness and empower returnees on the basis of the readmission agreements, voluntary returnees and the general Roma population in Serbia to access their rights, protect them and to fully involve themselves in the Serbian society. At the same time, the aim of the project was to inform the relevant stakeholders at the national and local level about the problems the above mentioned groups faced, and to encourage them to cooperate in facilitating the access of all these groups to their fundamental rights.

The objective of this publication is to present the problems, which the returnees and the Roma population in general in Serbia are facing, through practical examples, to review the possibilities that the existing legal system and the system of social network offer in resolving them and to consider the consequences that the neglect of these problems may have on exercise of the basic rights of returnees and their successful social inclusion. The publication will also propose guidelines for future acting in integration of returnees, resulting from the work of Praxis with this population and from cooperation with the representatives of state institutions at national and local level and non-governmental organisations working with returnees and members of the Roma community.

Download: Access to Rights and Integration of Returnees on the Basis of the Readmission Agreements