Serbia 

On 1 January 2008, the readmission agreement signed between the European Communities and Serbia has entered into force. It sets out the conditions for the forced repatriation of individuals to Serbia who are either from Serbia or who have transited via Serbia to the EU. According to estimates, the agreement will affect between 50,000 to 100,000 people from Serbia residing in the EU. This includes rejected asylum seekers and refugees, most of them Roma.

Already in the past, Serbia had signed bilateral agreements with most of the old and some of the new EU member states. On this basis, some 15.000 people have been forcibly repatriated to Serbia via the Belgrade airport, 120 deportees arrive in Serbia every month.  

NGOs, such as Grupa 484 have persistently pointed out at the lack of guarantees with regards to a proper reception of forced returnees in Serbia. Other groups, including the Ecumenical Humanitarian Organization (EHONS) and Amnesty International have pointed out at human rights violations in the context of readmission agreements in their reports.

The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly has repeatedly dealt with the issue of forced returns of Roma to Serbia. In its last recommendations from 27 June 2007, the Assembly expresses particular concern at the situation of displaced Roma in Serbia and points out to the fact that the readmission agreements do not set out clear conditions for the reception of returnees.

On 29 and 30 October 2007, the Serbian Parliament hosted a two-day conference on sustainable solutions for Roma refugees, IDPs and returnees co-organised by the Serbian Assembly, the State Agency for Human and Minority Rights, and the Council of Europe Directorate for Social Cohesion, under the auspices of the Serbian chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. In their conclusions, the participants of the conference asked for the process of readmission to be gradual and coordinated between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the governments of the countries the returnees are coming from, taking into account limited reception capacities in Serbia.

Kosovo

Since 2000, so-called memoranda of understanding have been signed between UNMIK and the governments of the host countries of refugees (see also Refugee Protection and Return policies in Western Europe). In the beginning, these agreements were to arrange the coordinated returns of ethnic Albanians to Kosovo, but increasingly they have been extended to cover also members of minority communities and, on an individual basis, members of communities which are covered by the UNHCR Position on the Continued International Protection Needs of Individuals from Kosovo.

In May 2007, a working group made of representatives of the PISG, international organisations and UNMIK, finalised a document on the readmission of people originating from Kosovo who have entered illegally or are staying without proper residence title in a third country. The document lays out the procedure for their forcible repatriation to Kosovo.

It foresees a transition period until the expected independence of Kosovo during which UNMIK will still have an oversight function and be responsible for dealing with readmission requests, before handing over the entire process to the Kosovo institutions.

These are encouraged to conclude readmission agreements or memoranda of understanding with the governments of host countries in order to assure the return of person originating from Kosovo. Special attention is given to the return of people belonging to so-called vulnerable groups including ethnic minorities.

While it is said that UNMIK, in dealing with the requests of individual governments, will still base its decisions on the UNHCR Position, it seems that this reference will be abandonend after Kosovo’s eventual independence.  This implies that security concerns related to the ethnic background of a person will be no longer be an obstacle to forced rapatriation.

Accordingly, any reference to a persons ethnic background in the readmission process will be removed, even though linguistic analysis will still be one element to determine whether a person originates from Kosovo or not.

Kosovo’s Readmission Policy was adopted by the Kosovo Government on 31 October 2007 and has been approved by the Special Representative of the Secretary General on 28 November 2007.

This document comes to complete another document approved by the Kosovo Government on 10 October 2007 on the reintegration of repatriated persons, the  Strategy for Reintegration of Repatriated Persons.

This document was elaborated by the Steering Board for Reintegration of Repatriated Persons, composed of representatives of the Kosovo governments and international organisations, including UNMIK, OSCE, IOM, EUPT, and the UNHCR, foresees the  forced repatriation of 5,000 persons per year.

According to the same document, the total number of people from Kosovo with no legal residence title abroad is estimated at up to 100,000 persons, 53,000 in Germany alone, of which 38,000 are assumed to belong to the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities.

In line with the policy on readmission, the strategy focusses on the reintegration of so-called vulnerable groups including Roma, but also of people with serious health problems, and just like the policy, this documents contains clear indications that the UNHCR Position on continued international protection needs of individuals from Kosovo might not be considered as a reference anymore, as soon as Kosovo is becoming independent.

According to UNMIK, the overall number of forcibly repatriated people in 2007 stands at 3125 persons, the largest group of deportees, i.e., 896 coming from Germany alone.

Since November 1^th, 2008, the Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs has taken over all responsibilities in the field of return from UNMIK (see letter). In line with the Readmission policy, the ethnicity of the person to be deported is no longer communicated in the course of the readmission procedure, neither is the person’s health conditions. This implies that the enforcement of the UNHCR position on the continued international protection needs of individuals from Kosovo becomes even more difficult. In past, UNMIK refused the readmission of people covered by the UNHCR position.

See also: UNMIK: Comprehensive Framework to Manage Forced Returns in Kosovo (PR), 7 November 2007

Romano Them: By force, if necessary – Minority returns to Kosovo after independence, 26 February 2008