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discourage the migrants from entering the country at the spots where this is not permitted
and to prevent smuggling of humans, Serbia formed mixed military - police patrols. These
patrols perform the tasks of securing the border and inland territory of the state and they are
being under the command of the Serbian Army.
The migrants are currently staying in Serbia for a prolonged period and the issue of providing
the care for them is by far more complex. Unlike the previous period when they used to transit Serbia and stay for only couple of days, they are now staying for several months. Some of
them wish to seek an asylum in Serbia, but most of them still desire to continue their journey
to the developed countries of EU. Having anticipated such situation, in its Annual Report for
the year 2015, the NPM sent a proposal to the Government to develop the Plan for providing
care to refugees and migrants who are stranded or returned to Serbia; Plan on how to treat
those who were not granted any protection in Serbia; as well as a Plan for integration of those
who were granted asylum in Serbia. By the end of the year, the government adopted the
Decree on the method of inclusion into social, cultural and economic life of persons who have
been recognized their right to Reception Centre,100 Commissariat for Refugees and Migrations
is to provide the integration of these migrants through full and timely provision of information about the rights, opportunities and obligations; learning of Serbian language; learning
about the Serbian history, culture and constitution system; assistance with their inclusion into
the education system; support with their exercising the rights to health and social protection
and assistance with their joining the labour market. Nevertheless, the plans for the treatment
of migrants who have found themselves in Serbia or who were returned to Serbia as well as
those who have not been approved protection here, still do not exist at the governmental
level, and therefore, acting towards the migrants is conditional upon the situation in the field,
in different parts of the country. Consequentially, there are diverse rules adopted in reception
centres and differences in the treatment by police officers of the migrants who arrived from
the war-stricken countries and therefore there are differences in the scope of protection provided to unaccompanied minors. Furthermore, there is an impression that this entire system
of providing care for migrants currently depends on the humanitarian aid of national and
international organizations of civil society and foreign countries, and the success of the Commissariat with finding donators for different needs. In the long run, such system will prove to
be unsustainable and it is necessary to adopt action plans at the national level.
According to the estimates of UNHCR, at the end of the year, there were around 6,400
migrants in the country. Out of this number, as at November 30, 2016, around 5,300 of them
were placed in official centres, while the remaining number of people stayed at the informal gathering locations, outside the institutions of the system. The data of the Commissariat
showed that in the course of 2016, around 7,000 migrants were admitted to asylum centres
only (in Tutin, Krnjača, Sjenica, Banja Koviljača and Bogovađa), most of them to the Asylum
Centre in Krnjača: about 4,300.101
During 2016, an additional number of reception centres were either opened or adapted for
the use as reception centres (Pirot, Dimitrovgrad, Divljana near Bela Palanka, Bosilegrad,
100 “Official Gazette of RS”, no. 101 dated December 16, 2016.
101 According to the information of the Commissariat, the peak of the inflow of migrants to the Asylum Centres was in
the period July – September 2016, when 2,632 of them were admitted, compared to the other quarters when around
1,500 migrants were admitted.
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