Some police stations in Serbia refuse to register temporary residence of IDPs from Kosovo, allegedly on the basis of an internal instruction issued by the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia in 2003. Instead of registering IDPs’ temporary residence they instruct them to submit requests for registering permanent residence in Serbia.
According to the information that Praxis obtained in the field recently, the Police Station in Bujanovac refuses the IDPs’ requests for registration of temporary residence. Allegedly, they have not been receiving requests since 2003, on the basis of internal instruction of the responsible Ministry. Due to such practice of the police IDPs accommodated in the officially registered Collective Centre “Salvatore” in Bujanovac are prevented from obtaining IDP status. Even those parents who do have IDP status are not allowed to register temporary residence of their children born in Serbia.
The Police Station in Sabac also refuses the IDPs’ requests for registration of temporary residence. Unlike the Police Station in Bujanovac, the Police Station in Sabac even refuses to issue new certificates on registered temporary residence to IDPs who have lost such certificates.
The practice of the Police Station in Stari Grad, Belgrade, is the same and based on the internal instruction of the responsible Ministry.
Such practice of the competent bodies contravenes both domestic and international regulations, and deprives IDPs from exercising their fundamental human rights.
Every internally displaced person has the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his or her residence (UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, Principle 14).
The citizens are obliged to report changes in their permanent and temporary residence (Article 2 of the Law on Permanent and Temporary Residence of Citizens, "Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Serbia", No. 42/77 – revised text, 24/85, 6/89 and 25/89 and "Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia", No. 53/93, 67/93, 48/94 and 101/2005 – other laws …).
Download: IDPs Deprived of Temporary Residence Registration
