As of 3 April 2018, persons who do not possess the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia but have the citizenship of one of the former republics of the SFRY or SFRY citizenship will have the opportunity to be admitted to the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia under simplified conditions.  The condition prescribed for admission to citizenship (naturalisation) is that the applicant had the permanent residence registered in the territory of Serbia both on 31 December 2016 and at the time of submitting an application. The application deadline is 3 April 2019.

This option was provided by the Law on Amendments to the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Serbia to ensure easier access to the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia for persons who have had permanent residence and ID cards issued in Serbia for many years, most often even for many decades.  These are mainly elderly people who upon expiry of their old ID cards realised that their ID cards were not permanently valid, and that due to not having the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia they were unable to obtain biometric ID cards.
  
Besides, the Law stipulates that the records on the citizens of the Republic of Serbia will be established in the electronic format at the latest by 30 June 2018, and that it will be possible to issue citizenship certificates to citizens regardless of where the fact of citizenship was recorded in the relevant registries. 

In April, the number of refugees/migrants met and interviewed by Praxis’ mobile team did not exceed 180 on a daily basis, including the newly arrived ones, the refugees/migrants accommodated in the Asylum Centre Krnjača and the Reception Centre Obrenovac and those who returned to Belgrade after unsuccessful attempts to cross the Croatian, Hungarian or Romanian border. In this period, Praxis provided assistance to a total of 1176 refugees/migrants, through information, referrals to the targeted assistance provided by various organisations/institutions or covering the costs of transport to the asylum and reception centres.

Praxis continued its field work and provided a total of 704 newly arrived refugees and migrants (542 adults - 470 men and 72 women, and 162 children - 126 boys and 36 girls, including 102 potential unaccompanied and separated children (UASC), 95 boys and 7 girls) with relevant information. Out of the total of 704 newly arrived refugees/migrants, 123 persons or 17.5% of them were from Afghanistan, which is almost double compared to the previous period when 64 Afghans arrived. 15 newly arrived refugees/migrants were from Syria, which accounts for 2.1% of the total number and represents a decrease compared to the previous period (in March, 33 newly arrived refugees were from Syria). 66 refugees and migrants came from Iraq (9.4%). 175 refugees/migrants (24.9%) came from Pakistan. A total of 254 refugees/migrants (36.1% of the total number) came from Iran, which is also a significant increase compared to the previous period when 125 refugees/migrants arrived from Iran. Out of 254 Iranian refugees/migrants, 230 arrived by plane. 15 refugees/migrants (2.1%) came from Algeria and 1 (0.1%) from Morocco. A total of 55 (7.8%) refugees/migrants came from other countries - from India (4), China (1), Bangladesh (4), Egypt (1), Ghana (7), Congo (1), Libya (14), Nepal (1), Ivory Cost (1), Somalia (13), Sri Lanka (5) and Tunisia (3).

The families and UASC waiting for registration or transport to one of the asylum or reception centres they had been referred to still had the option of spending the night in the aid hub Refugee Aid Miksalište, in the proximity of Belgrade Bus and Train Station. In this reporting period, there was no organised transportation of the refugees/migrants to the reception and asylum centers. Info Park continued to provide one meal a day for newly arrived refugees/migrants, and occasionally covered transport costs to the reception and asylum centres, while MSF clinic continued to provide medical support. In this reporting period, there was no organised distribution of clothing and footwear in the field in Belgrade.

Download the whole Protection Monitoring Report here.

In March, the number of refugees/migrants met and interviewed by Praxis’ mobile team did not exceed 150 on a daily basis, including the newly arrived ones, the refugees/migrants accommodated in the Asylum Centre Krnjača and the Reception Centre Obrenovac and those who returned to Belgrade after unsuccessful attempts to cross the Croatian, Hungarian or Romanian border. In this reporting period, Praxis provided assistance to a total of 823 refugees/migrants, through information, referrals to the targeted assistance provided by various organisations/institutions or covering the costs of transport to the asylum and reception centres

Praxis continued its field work and provided a total of 538 newly arrived refugees and migrants (423 adults - 377 men and 46 women, and 115 children - 91 boys and 24 girls, including 63 potential unaccompanied and separated children (UASC), all boys) with relevant information. Out of the total of 538 newly arrived refugees/ migrants, 64 persons or 11.9% of them were from Afghanistan. 33 newly arrived refugees/migrants were from Syria, which accounts for 6.1% of the total number. 67 refugees and migrants came from Iraq (12.5%). 189 refugees/migrants (35.1%) came from Pakistan, which is a significant increase compared to the previous reporting period when 100 newly arrived refugees/migrant were from Pakistan. 125 refugees/migrants (23.2% of the total number) came from Iran. The refugees/migrants from Iran continue arriving by plane: 106 out of 125 of them in March. 5 refugees/migrants (0.9%) came from Algeria and 4 (0.7%) from Morocco. A total of 51 (0.7%) refugees/migrants came from other countries - from Russia (1), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1), Burundi (1), Congo (1), Ghana (1), India (17 – out of whom 4 arrived by plane), Lebanon (1), Libya (17), Myanmar (2), Nepal (4), Sri Lanka (4) and Turkey (Kurd) (1).

Download the whole Protection Monitoring Report here.

The residents of Beranovac settlement are at risk of eviction. Dragana Bikić, Director of City Housing Agency in Kraljevo, and Praxis representative Marija Dražović, spoke for RTS about current challenges and the necessity to find as soon as possible an appropriate response to address their housing issues.
See the footage here.

The Equal Rights Trust (ERT), Praxis and Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms (Sandžak Committee) invite civil society organisations (CSOs) to participate in organising the activities of advocacy against discrimination, advocacy for the application of existing anti-discrimination laws or advocacy for improving the legal and political framework against discrimination in Serbia.

We are looking for CSOs from Serbia who want to receive funds for the activities of advocacy against discrimination.  Four subgrants will be awarded. The amount of each subgrant will equal € 1,000.
This call is part of the project entitled Improving the equality legal and policy framework in Serbia and monitoring implementation of equality norms and policies, implemented by the ERT, Praxis and Sandžak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, and supported by the European Union.  

The call is intended for CSOs registered in the Republic of Serbia. The application may be written in Serbian or English. The deadline for application is 30 May 2018 at 2 p.m.

Download the Call here (Serbian only).

On this year’s International Roma Day, celebrated all over the world on 8 April, the Roma in Serbia continue to be one of the most marginalised and discriminated social groups. Low educational level, unemployment, inadequate living conditions, difficult financial situation, hindered access to personal documents, health care and social welfare remain to be the challenges often faced by the Roma in Serbia. 

Despite some progress achieved over the past several years in the field of exercising and protecting certain rights, Roma continue to face obstacles that hinder or completely prevent their access to certain rights on a daily basis. Thus, there are still children who cannot be registered at birth due to inadequate regulations and who therefore remain excluded from the system of health care and social welfare in the most vulnerable period of their lives. The situation of Roma children is particularly worrying because they are at a much higher risk of early dropout and/or becoming victims of child, early and forced marriages. Social exclusion, discrimination, segregation, intolerance and prejudice are negative phenomena that are too often associated with the Roma community.

A society in which one of the largest national minorities lives in the situation that is by far worse than the situation of the majority population can in no case be considered successful. Therefore, Praxis urges all institutions to pay more attention to the numerous problems faced by Roma, and to invest more efforts to change inadequate regulations and eradicate poor practices and discrimination because otherwise the situation of Roma cannot be improved.