In focus > News 11/23/2018

The first part of the workshop “International Standards of Asylum Seekers Protection in the Context of National Legislation“ is finished.

On 23 November 2018, the first part of the workshop “International Standards of Asylum Seekers Protection in the Context of National Legislation” was held at the Mama Shelter Hotel for the staff of Asylum Office. The lecturers at the workshop organized within the second stage of the project “Support to strengthening of the migration and asylum management system in Serbia” and implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) with the support of the British Embassy in Belgrade were prof. dr. Ivana Krstić, associate professor at the Law School of the Belgrade University and Miroslava Jelačić, legal analyst of the Group 484.

 

This workshop is one in a number of events which should facilitate application of certain institutes for the staff of the Asylum Office and introduce to them the best practice and international standards applicable in cases they have at work. Among other things, they learnt about various categories of migrants, the term of persecution, grounds for persecution and basic principles of migrant protection.  

 

”New legal regulations in the Republic of Serbia created a new legal framework so that movement from one to the other migrant category can be more properly explained. Previous laws set out a clear difference and division between e.g. forced and voluntary migrants, while the new legislations provide for those people to be treated more adequately. Although voluntary migrants include people who leave their country for economic, family or personal reasons, and forced migrants include persons who are motivated to leave their country by certain events, the mixed migration flows are the ones that have been spoken about in the recent years in the Republic of Serbia“, explained  Miroslava Jelačić and added that in the following period a special attention should be paid to the status of people without citizenship in a migration flow, smuggled migrants and unaccompanied minors, so that their needs are met in the best possible way.   

 

Prof. Dr. Ivana Krstić, spoke about definition and status of refugees, conditions that need to be met in order to obtain such a status, subsidiary protection, Convention on refugee status, stateless persons, persons with multiple citizenships and the term of persecution.   

 

”The term of persecution should be defined in line with the Qualification Directive 2012. If the acts to which a person has been exposed are sufficiently serious in its nature or are repetitive, thus making a serious violation of human rights, particularly the absolutely protected human rights, then the persecution exists. In such a context it is important to establish whether there is a causal relation between the reasons for persecution and acts of persecution, as well as whether the family members of the persecuted person are vulnerable to the acts of persecution. On the other side, according to the Qualification Directive we cannot speak about persecution if there is an internal protection, that is, if the person may get a protection at that part of the territory “, explained prof. dr. Ivana Krstić.

 

Both she and Miroslava Jelačić consider important the fact that Republic of Serbia assumed all EU standards concerning persecution, but they also stressed that a special attention should be paid in this context to interpretation of facts of a specific case. 

 

At the second part of the workshop “International Standards of Asylum Seekers Protection in the Context of National Legislation“ that would be delivered on 11 December 2018, the staff of the Asylum Office will be informed in detail about the freedom of movement restrictions/freedom deprivation and effective legal remedies. Speakers will again be prof. dr. Ivana Krstić, and Miroslava Jelačić.