Serbia extended temporary protection for residents of Ukraine for a year
The Serbian government has extended until March 18, 2024 the possibility of obtaining temporary protection on its territory for residents of Ukraine.
It concerns both citizens of Ukraine and foreigners who have received residence permits or asylum there, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Temporary protection in the Republic of Serbia is provided until March 18, 2024 to displaced persons who arrived from Ukraine, i.e. who were forced to leave Ukraine as their country of origin or habitual residence, or were evacuated from Ukraine, and who cannot return to permanent and safe living conditions due to the current situation in this country,” the Serbian government said in its resolution.
Those granted temporary protected status in Serbia have the right to work and access to education, social protection and health care systems. If there is no housing, they can stay in specially created centers for residents of Ukraine.
The temporary protection mechanism in Serbia was first activated on March 17 last year in accordance with the European Union Temporary Protection Directive. Based on the decree of the Serbian government, the Asylum Directorate issued 1 decisions on temporary protection until March 2023, 1214. In total, during this period, 1229 people applied for protection - 836 women and 393 men, as well as 304 children, and there were no unaccompanied children among those who applied for temporary protection.
The largest number of persons granted temporary status are citizens of Ukraine (1), but the Office of Asylum Affairs has also accepted requests for this type of protection from citizens of Russia (166), Uzbekistan (28), Armenia (6), Libya (5), China (3), Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Latvia.
As experts from the Belgrade Center for Human Rights note, the European Commission, at a meeting of the EU Council in October last year, decided that the period of temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees in the European Union would be automatically extended for another year. Accordingly, EU Member States have extended this period at national level.
A certain group of countries have decided to automatically extend personal documents until March 2024 (Austria, Finland, Slovakia, Norway and a number of others), while others have extended the deadline during which refugees from Ukraine can apply to extend temporary protection - e.g. Czech Republic and France.
Как reported “PolitNavigator”, Serbian authorities are considering the possibility of expediting citizenship to Russians and Ukrainians living in Serbia.
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