By Sandra Pekic

The return and reintegration of more than 100.000 people who were rejected the asylum requests by Western European countries, or were denied the temporary protection status due to the termination of Balkan wars, represents a great challenge for Serbia in years to come. Readmission agreement, which became valid on January 1st 2008, binds Serbia to accept not only its citizen who were residing without authorisation and proper documents in any EU member state, but also the third-country nationals who illegally crossed Serbian borders in order to enter EU territory. Although many have returned from the EU to their countries of origin, local authorities are still looking for the efficient plan of integrating returnees in local community.

When European Commission representatives offered Western Balkans states so-called road map for Schengen visa abolishment last April, it was specified that illegal immigration is one out of four issues waiting to be achieved in order to make this process successful. The readmission is considered to be very important matter not only because countries in region are located close to EU borders, but because wars in ex-Yugoslavia initiated immigration which was directed to European countries - 1.200.000 people, i.e. 5.5 percent of population, have abandoned their homes.

An evident reducement of asylum seekers from Serbia has been registered last year, which gives a hope for solving this problem, since a great number of Serbian population, including those coming from Kosovo and Metohija, has requested temporary protection status in the EU even after elections in 2000. In 2005 there were 11.000 requests registered, which took Serbia to the leading position, ahead of China and Russia.

Human and Minority Rights Department has announced that the process of return should be completed in five or six years, but what remains uncertain are the precise information on the number and people`s  profile that should be regulated by the Readmission Agreement.

Few years ago the Council of Europe estimated that there could be between 50.000 and 100.000 people. Others believe that the number is higher, because more than 10.000 people are expected to return from Germany to their countries of origin. Beside Germany, many people from Serbia will return to their motherland from Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Sweden. When it comes to the ethnical structure, more than half are the Roma, which are followed by Bosniaks, Serbs, Albanians and Gorani.  

According to official information, 50.000 illegal residents have already returned to Serbia. Serbian Ministry of the Interior has announced that the abrupt return is not expected, because bilateral agreements regarding readmission process have been applied with some EU member states in the past few years, which led to the return of 4.000 people in Serbia each year.

The Readmission Agreement with EU predicts the forced deportation of 1.000 illegal immigrants, and during 2008 between 100 and 250 people monthly were forced to abandon EU territory and return to their native country.

But the precise number of those who have returned is still unknown, because Human and Minority Rights Department has no appropriate mechanisms for monitoring those who have willingly, with no accompaniment, decided to return to Serbia and who have crossed state borders with legal passports like the rest of the citizen. Zoran Panjkovic, Readmission Office coordinator, has made a statement for Beta Agency that the number of those who have decided to return willingly in Serbia is probably few times higher of those who are forced to come back. Many European countries are now working on adding clauses to the regulations regarding immigrants, thanks to which many of them will eventually fulfil conditions for permanent residence.

This process, however, has faced another problem, because the Readmission Agreement does not include Kosovo and Metohija, since this territory is under UN administration control. But Group 484, an non-profit organisation which provides help to people in readmission process, reports that a controversial "internal flight" concept is being applied on people coming from Kosovo and Metohija. That implies an assumption that an asylum seeker may be provided the protection in another part of its country of origin, meaning that the international protection is not obligatory. It means that Western European countries have not accepted UNHCR recommendations not to deport minorities coming from Kosovo and Metohija to Central Serbia, which suddenly from refuges made internally displaced persons.

Situation is additionally complicated with the fact that Serbia refuses to allow the internally displaced status to deported persons who originally came from Kosovo.

According to the international laws, asylum represents a protection provided by a state to foreign citizen, guaranteeing them a refugee status. But international agreements regarding readmission and in some cases EU countries` legislation seem not to make a clear difference between various categories of returnees.

This implies that there is no difference between those who are denied the temporary protection or those who are refused asylum request, from illegal immigrants or crime committers who are on a deportation lists. Most of them were, accompanied by police, deported in Serbia allowed to take only personal things, sometimes even with no documents. Forced deportations may cause family members separations, traumas, in some cases therapy and education discontinuance.

Analysts believe that Serbian government needs to form action teams which will consist of sociologists, psychologists and experts of other profile, whose task would be to provide assistance to those who need it, in order to integrate into pauperised Serbian society easily, trying not to cause intensive social tensions.

The antagonisms toward returnees have already been registered. Fearing that people might remain without their jobs, many Banat area residents have started the initiative not to permit those who are originally not from this area to stay with them.

Due to heavy conditions, many of them are trying again to reach any EU country using illegal ways. It happened in 2007, when more than hundred of deported Roma have illegally crossed border, requiring asylum in Romania.

But in its Eurointegration process Romania has experienced problems regarding its citizen who illegally crossed borders in search for jobs, mostly in France. Bucharest authorities report that more than 220.000 people were prevented to leave Romania illegally during the first eight months in 2002, while 6.200 were deported back to their native country from EU territory. But even though Romanians have considered it as their major success, French cities were infested with thousands of the Roma beggars coming from Romania.

That is why French and Romanian authorities have reached additional readmission agreement, which was initiated by Nicolas Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior and now the President of France. This agreement assumes that French NGO`s should participate in assuring reintegration of children into Romanian society.

Serbia, however, lacks systematic and organised approach in registering problems of returnees, which reduces the possibilities of creating mechanisms for solving their troubles. Besides, more than 20 per cent of deported population doesn`t understand or does not speak fluent Serbian, mostly children born abroad or adults who never did speak their official language before departure. With no money or relatives, these people can only rely on financial aid provided by Centres for Social Work or non-governmental organisations.

The Strategy for Integration Returnees, which is expected to be adopted by Serbian Government in months to come, could significantly facilitate current situation. Until then, hopeless people will continue roaming and mingling with criminal affairs in search for better life.