Country briefing: Statelessness and refugees in Serbia
Naturalisation
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Naturalisation is not facilitated for stateless people in Serbia. They must meet general residence,
language, income and other requirements for naturalisation, which can be prohibitive for
stateless people.
WHO ARE THE RELEVANT REFUGEE RESPONSE ACTORS IN THE SERBIAN CONTEXT?
Stage
Key actors and roles
Arrival &
registration
•
•
Support during
asylum process
Determination of
refugee status
Detention &
returns
•
Birth registration
•
Naturalisation
3
•
•
•
•
•
The police: registers new arrivals to Serbia and refers them to an
Asylum/Reception Centre. During the registration procedure interviews
are conducted without proper interpretation; Refugees/migrants usually
arrive without passports/documents; Police records the personal details,
as well as the country of origin based on the information provided by the
individual in the registration process; Police asks for the country of origin
and records it in the registration certificate as nationality (not country of
origin); Statelessness or the risk of statelessness is not identified or
recorded)
NGOs provide relevant information to people about the registration and
asylum procedure and assistance with the registration (e.g. Praxis assisted
1,470 refugees/migrants out of 5,153 who registered in 2017)
NGOs provide legal aid to asylum seekers, there is no free legal aid
provided by the state
Asylum Office
Asylum Appeals Commission
The Police
Misdemeanour Court
Shelter for foreigners
Registry offices: Even though the rules and regulations prescribe that
parents who are foreign nationals need to submit their passports (or at
least the mother of the child) in order for their child to be registered at
birth in Serbia, the registry offices in practice show flexibility by accepting
registration certificates issued by the police (with no photo) instead of
passports (in case the parents do not have passports). This means that
children born in Serbia have access to birth registration and are provided
with a birth certificate in Serbian. The child’s nationality is routinely
registered as the nationality of their parents. They are also provided with
an internationally recognised birth certificate, but this contains no
information on the nationality of the child.
• Ministry of Interior
• Administrative Court