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06-09-2011, 11:37 AM
A total of 976 requests for political asylum were sent to the Serbian government between Jan 1 - May 31 this year, or five times more than during the same period in 2010, according to an UNHCR report presented in Belgrade on Tuesday.
Serbia's Asylum Protection Centre says that the people requesting protection are from third world countries who head to Serbia to escape difficult economic and political situations in their home countries.
"People facing difficult political and economic situations in some parts of the world are the profile of asylum seekers in Serbia," Rados Djurovic, head of the Serbia's Asylum Protection Centre, told Balkan Insight, noting that the number of people from Northern Africa has increased since the Arab uprising began this spring.
By the end of May, 730 people from Afganistan had requested asylum, 58 from Pakistan and 50 from Palestine, 28 from Tunisia, eight from Morocco and two from Libya, according to the centre's data.
The Serbian government is currently reviewing a total of 223 cases.
However, all of the applicants have been rejected so far this year, as the main precondition for the status is political persecution- if the persons' rights were violated in their home countries on racial, ethnic, religious, or political grounds.
While the asylum process generally lasts about five months, according to Djurovic, most of the seekers actually leave before they are granted or denied protection.
"Serbia is only their transit station in most cases as there are lots of families, including pregnant women and young children, who need to get some rest on their way to the EU," Djurovic explains.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbia-getting-strained-by-asylum-seeker-spike
Serbia's Asylum Protection Centre says that the people requesting protection are from third world countries who head to Serbia to escape difficult economic and political situations in their home countries.
"People facing difficult political and economic situations in some parts of the world are the profile of asylum seekers in Serbia," Rados Djurovic, head of the Serbia's Asylum Protection Centre, told Balkan Insight, noting that the number of people from Northern Africa has increased since the Arab uprising began this spring.
By the end of May, 730 people from Afganistan had requested asylum, 58 from Pakistan and 50 from Palestine, 28 from Tunisia, eight from Morocco and two from Libya, according to the centre's data.
The Serbian government is currently reviewing a total of 223 cases.
However, all of the applicants have been rejected so far this year, as the main precondition for the status is political persecution- if the persons' rights were violated in their home countries on racial, ethnic, religious, or political grounds.
While the asylum process generally lasts about five months, according to Djurovic, most of the seekers actually leave before they are granted or denied protection.
"Serbia is only their transit station in most cases as there are lots of families, including pregnant women and young children, who need to get some rest on their way to the EU," Djurovic explains.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbia-getting-strained-by-asylum-seeker-spike