Serbia Immigration Detention Profile | Global Detention Project | Mapping immigration detention around the world

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Serbia Immigration Detention

Quick Facts

Detained asylum seekers (2016): 12
Detained minors (2017): Not Available
Number of immigration detainees on a given day (2020): 6,852

Centres List

No detention centres data available

Statistics Expand all



6,852

Number of immigration detainees on a given day

2020

  • Number of immigration detainees on a given day
NumberObservation Date
6,8522020


12

Number of detained asylum seekers

2016

  • Number of detained asylum seekers
NumberObservation Date
122016


Not Available

Total number of detained minors

2017

  • Total number of detained minors
NumberObservation Date
Not Available2017


10,065

Criminal prison population

2016

  • Criminal prison population
NumberObservation Date
10,0652016


3.5

Percentage of foreign prisoners

2015

  • Percentage of foreign prisoners
PercentageObservation Date
3.52015


142

Prison population rate (per 100,000 of national population)

2016

  • Prison population rate (per 100,000 of national population)
NumberObservation Date
1422016
B. Demographics and immigration-related statistics

Domestic Law Expand all

Legal tradition Show sources
NameObservation Date
Civil law2017

B. LAWS AND REGULATIONS

C. GROUNDS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE IMMIGRATION-RELATED DETENTION

D. CRIMINALIZATION OF IMMIGRATION-RELATED OFFENCES

E. LENGTH OF DETENTION

F. PROCEDURAL STANDARDS

G. NON-CUSTODIAL MEASURES (ALTERNATIVES TO DETENTION)

H. VULNERABLE PERSONS

I. MANDATORY DETENTION

J. EXPEDITED REMOVAL AND RE-ENTRY BAN

Latest Update Show sources
Update StatusObservation Date
Since March, all transit and asylum centres have been in lock-down. Raids of squats and informal accommodation have increased since then, with migrants and asylum seekers apprehended and transferred to camps across the country. According to the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN), the government temporarily opened several “camps,” which have been quickly filled with new arrivals. These sites are in Morović, Subotica, and Miratovac. Reportedly, the facility in Morović has been used to confine overflow from other sites and “troublemakers” from facilities elsewhere. Some of these, including the tented facility in Morović - had originally been intended to be used for quarantining Serbian nationals returning home. Despite Serbia lifting its state of emergency on 6 May, on 16 May the government announced that it would be deploying troops to “secure” and “protect” three migrant reception centres located on the country’s border with Croatia. Reportedly these three facilities - Principovac, Sid-Stanica, and Adasevci - currently confine 1,500 migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, most of whom are from Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. President Vučić reportedly told a local media outlet that the deployment was also to protect locals in the area. Since the country had begun to lift lockdown, he claimed, “the migrants started venturing outside the camps, committing petty crimes and illegal entries into houses.” Pushbacks from Serbia into North Macedonia have continued during the crisis. In one case documented by the BVMN in early April, a group of 15 adult men and one minor in Tutin camp were informed that they were being transferred to a site in Prescevo. Crammed into a police van, they were driven for nine hours before being forced outside and, with guns pointed at them, ordered to cross into North Macedonia. The group attempted to re-enter Serbia four times, but on each occasion they were pushed back across the border. As the GDP reported on 23 April, anti-migrant sentiment has been growing in Serbia. Since March, one of the fastest growing Facebook groups in the country is called “Stop Migrant Settlement.” Some of the group’s members have voiced their belief that authorities introduced curfews not to stem the virus’s spread, but so that they could quietly settle migrants across the country. In early May, a car was driven into a migrant centre in Obrenovac, with the driver live-streaming the attack on his Facebook page.2020
NGOs report that 6,852 migrants and asylum seekers are currently confined in the country’s 13 closed reception centres. Many had tried to cross into Croatia and Hungary - with some being forcibly pushed back by Hungarian and Croatian border police. In recent months, anti-migrant sentiment has grown in the country: a rally in Belgrade in early March called for the return of all migrants passing through Serbia and warned that participants would set up street patrols to intercept foreigners. After the eruption of the Covid-19 crisis, Serbian authorities quickly moved to lock-down reception centres, imposing a state of quarantine on 17 March. Article 3, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Decree on Emergency Measures provides that migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers may be deprived of their liberty on the grounds of preventing “uncontrolled movement” and the potential spread of the virus. With armed soldiers reportedly stationed outside the reception centres, migrants and asylum seekers have not been allowed out of the facilities unless they receive special permission, and rights organisations have been prevented from entering - thus denying detainees psychological, legal, or other forms of assistance. However, with no confirmed cases amongst the non-citizen population, and with no such restrictions in place for Serbian citizens living in private accommodation, rights observers argue that this amounts to “discrimination on the basis of legal status, origin and place of residence.” The human rights NGO A11 says that the government’s quarantine of reception facilities is additionally problematic given that the collective deprivation of liberty of non-citizens has produced inhuman and degrading conditions in certain facilities due to severe overcrowding - reportedly, capacity at Sombor Transit Centre has reached 450 percent.2020

International Law Expand all

International treaties Show sources
NameRatification Year
ICERD, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination2001
VCCR, Vienna Convention on Consular Relations2001
ICESCR, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights2001
ICCPR, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights2001
CEDAW, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women2001
CAT, Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment2001
CRC, Convention on the Rights of the Child2001
ICPED, International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance2011
CRSR, Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees2001
CRSSP, Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons2001
CTOCTP, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children2001
CTOCSP, Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime2001
OPCAT, Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment2006
Ratio of relevant international treaties ratified
  13/19
Individual complaints procedure Show sources
NameAcceptance Year
ICERD, declaration under article 14 of the Convention2001
ICCPR, First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 19662001
CEDAW, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 19992003
CAT, declaration under article 22 of the Convention2001
CRPD, Optional Protocol to o the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities2009
ICPED, International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, declaration under article 312011
Ratio of complaints procedures accepted Show sources
NumberObservation Date
6/72017


Bilateral/multilateral agreements linked to readmission Show sources
NameYear in ForceObservation Date
Germany20032017
Germany20112017
Austria20042017
Austria20112017
Bulgaria20102017
Croatia20042017
Denmark20032017
Italy19982017
Malta20102017
Slovakia20032017
Slovakia20092017
Slovenia20092017
Spain20112017
Sweden20032017
Norway20092017
Switzerland20102017
Russian Federation20152017
EU20082017

Relevant recommendations of the UN Universal Periodic Review Show sources
Recomendation IssuedYear IssuedObservation Date
No20092017
No20132017

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