The Belgrade Center For Human Rights under the supervision of late Prof. Vojin Dimitrijevic established and published annual Human Rights Reports starting with the year 1997. They were initially published as "Human Rights in Yugoslavia" (until 2002), later as "Human Rights in Serbia and Montenegro" (2003-2006), then as "Human Rights in Serbia" (since 2007)
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A Wrong Presumption
The writing of this report was triggered by a significant increase in the number of asylum seekers returned by the Hungarian authorities to Serbia in 2011. Hungary modified its Asylum Act in December 2010 and introduced the concept of a safe third country among the criteria examined in the admissibility procedure. The result of this amendment is that asylum seekers arriving in Hungary through Serbia can be returned to Serbia without an in-merit examination of their claim. As the application of this concept concerns a significant number of asylum seekers in Hungary, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) decided to examine whether the utilisation of the safe third country concept in relation to Serbia is justified.The report was compiled by using various sources: internet research, a three-day field mission to the Republic of Serbia, participation in a conference in Belgrade and discussions with governmental, non-governmental and international stakeholders.
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The present report is a follow-up to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s (“HHC”) report Serbia as a Safe Third Country: A Wrong Presumption (“2011 Serbia Report”) and is based on the results of a three-day field mission by the HHC to Serbia in April 2012, as well as extensive desk research. Given that only few substantial changes have occurred in both the Serbian asylum practice and in the policy of Hungarian authorities with regards to return to Serbia, unfortunately, our concerns expressed in the 2011 report remain valid.
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