|Published on: 3rd July 2025|Categories: News|
The updated AIDA Country Report on Serbia provides a detailed overview on legislative and practice-related developments in asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum applicants and content of international protection in 2024. It is accompanied by an annex which provides an overview of temporary protection.
A number of key developments drawn from the overview of the main changes that have taken place since the publication of the update on 2023 are set out below.
(A) International protection
Asylum procedure
- Statistics on arrivals and pushbacks: A total of 19,603 arrivals were recorded in 2024. This represented an 82% decrease from the previous year. According to the Ministry of the Interior, in 2024, 14,080 people were prevented from “entering Serbia illegally” (i.e. they were denied access to the territory and asylum procedure), 5,713 people were informally sent to Serbia from Hungary and only 462 foreign nationals were officially readmitted to Serbia.
- Statistics on access to the asylum procedure at the airport: A total of 4,706 foreign nationals were refused entry in 2024, including 1,757 at the Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. Two requests for interim measures were adopted at the airport, thus preventing the forcible removal of two people who were fleeing political persecution in Türkiye.
- Statistics on first instance decisions: The Asylum Office made 152 decisions regarding 200 asylum applicants in 2024. Of the 152 decisions made, 53 applications were rejected on the merits and seven others resulted in the granting of asylum. The recognition rate was just 12% (3% decrease from 2023). Of the seven decisions that resulted in the granting of international protection, four were for recognition of refugee status and the other three were for subsidiary protection (to Syrian nationals).
- Statistics on appeals: In 2024, the Asylum Commission made 45 decisions: two appeals were upheld, two were referred to the Asylum Office after the complaints lodged were upheld on procedural grounds, and 41 were rejected. The Administrative Court delivered 16 decisions. As a result, three complaints were upheld: two for procedural reasons and the other on substantive grounds related to religious persecution.
- Legal aid: In 2024, legal aid was still mainly provided by civil society organisations (CSOs) but the number of lawyers involved in asylum cases grew.
Reception conditions
- Reception capacity and conditions: Most of the reception facilities operated by the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration (KIRS) were closed in 2024. At the end of the year, only three reception centres and four asylum centres were still operational.
- Vulnerability: People who arrive in KIRS-operated reception or asylum centres do not undergo vulnerability assessments. Most vulnerable people are identified by CSOs.
Detention of asylum applicants
- Freedom of movement and deprivation of liberty: In 2024, eight asylum applicants were detained: three from Afghanistan, three from the Russian Federation, two from Syria and one from Sweden. Asylum applicants are detained in two centres: Detention Centre Padinska Skela (Belgrade) and Detention Centre
- Detention conditions: Detention conditions vary between the two centres but common issues include their carceral nature, a shortage of interpreters, an absence of health screening and vulnerability assessments upon arrival, and a lack of access to meaningful activities.
Content of international protection
- Integration – (i) Right to work: No major challenges relating to beneficiaries of international protection’s access to the labour market were reported in 2024.
- Integration – (ii) Right to permanent residency: The amended Foreigners Act introduced a new provision which allows people who have been granted asylum to apply for permanent residency; the final step before being able to obtain citizenship. The first decisions granting permanent residency were made in the first quarter of 2024.
- Access to education: No major issues relating to refugee or asylum-seeking children’s access to education were reported in 2024.
- Travel documents: A total of 49 travel documents for refugees had been issued as of 31 December 2024: 33 to men, seven to women, six to boys and three to girls.
- Family reunification: There were no instances of family reunification in 2024.
(B) Temporary protection
- Statistics: In 2024, 400 people were registered under temporary protection: 381 Ukrainians, 15 Russians and four from other countries. 375 people, including 355 Ukrainians, were granted temporary protection in 2024 and 709 others had their temporary protection status extended: 672 Ukrainians, 19 Russians and 18 people from other countries.
- Scope of temporary protection: The following people are eligible for temporary protection: (a) citizens of Ukraine and their family members who were living in Ukraine; (b) people seeking asylum, stateless people and foreign nationals who had been granted asylum or equivalent national protection in Ukraine and their family members who had been granted residence in Ukraine; and (c) foreign nationals who had been granted valid permanent residence or temporary residence in Ukraine and who cannot return to their country of origin under permanent and long-term circumstances.
- Access to rights: No major issues regarding beneficiaries of temporary protection’s access to rights were reported in 2024.
The full report is available here and the annex on temporary protection is available here.
For more information about the AIDA database or to read other AIDA reports, please visit the AIDA website.
