Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM
Human Rights House
Kneza Milosa 4, 11103 Belgrade, Serbia
Project Progress and Financial Report – No 6.
Date of the visit: 19/01/2016
Place of the visit: Centar za azil, Krnjača, Republic of Serbia
Project: “Aid to refugees and migrants – from legal aid to conditions assessment”
Persons responsible for reporting: Ana Janković Jovanović and Momčilo Živadinović
Project Progress
General impressions:
A team consisting of Momcilo Zivadinovic and Ana J. Jovanovic visited the Asylum Center in Krnjaca on January 19th 2016.
According to the information we were provided, at the time of the team’s visit approximately 120 people, among them refugees from former Yugoslavia as well as migrants and refugees from the east, were staying at the Center. The center is organized in such a way as to make sure that the groups and individuals coming from the east, who on average stay at the center for a night or two, don’t mix with the asylum residents coming from former Yugoslavia and who are stationed at the center for some time now.
Based on the info we were provided a few hours before we arrived at the center, migrants and refugees coming from the east were told that they have to leave the center and that they will be provided with transport from the center to either the Bulgarian or the Macedonian border and that they have to decide which way they are heading.
All the buildings in the center have heating and hot water. The conditions in the restrooms, kitchens and dormitories were unhygienic. Anxiousness and a small degree of bigotry were noticeable among the refugees. At the time of the visit there weren’t that many mothers with small children staying at the Center.
We were told that the Center provides refugees with food as well as some clothing and footwear based on available supplies.
At the time of this visit, we interviewed several refugees coming from Pakistan, who were visibly upset about the information that they might have to return to Bulgaria or Macedonia. An interview was also conducted with on individual from Macedonia who complained about severe mistreatment from the Center authorities as well as the other migrants staying at the Center. He also complained about the length of the asylum procedure, seeing how he issued a formal request two years ago and he is still waiting for a reply. By looking into the documents that were provided we saw that he hadn’t answered the call for a medical exam, in which he was instructed that was the next necessary step in resolving his asylum request.
