On Friday, April 11, 2008, a representative of the Asylum Protection Center (APC), Mr. Rados Djurovic, paid a visit, organized by the UNHCR Legal Clinic, to the Asylum Center of the Republic of Serbia in Banja Kovljaca (near Loznica). The place is meant to provide accommodation for all asylum seekers in the Republic of Serbia and there the provisions of the Asylum Law (entered into force on April 1, 2008) will be enforced.
Namely, asylum seekers will be directed by the police officers at the boarder to this Asylum Center, and then the Ministry of Interior (Asylum Office), in the first instance, will decide on their status.
The Center was built on a slope above the spa, to which a steep road leads, through quiet gardens with cherry-trees in blossom. It is a new, modern, well-furnished building under 24 hours surveillance, which provides to its residents life as normal as possible, meeting their needs concerning accommodation, food, personal hygiene even education, for those children who contrary to others cannot attend classes in Serbian in the local school yet (classes held three times a week, under the auspices of the Danish Refugee Center, are organized by SVETIONIK a local non-governmental organization).
However, only some of the asylum seekers, present in the Republic of Serbia, have been accommodated in Banja Koviljaca, but very soon the rest of them staying in Padinska Skela will be moved to Banja Koviljaca..
The place is led and financed by the UNHCR, although the Republic of Serbia should have taken care of it, after the entry into force of the Asylum Law (April 1, 2008),
In a few months, probably, the situation will be changed so that everything will be organized according to the provisions of the new law. But, a problem may arise, and become serious one day, due to very distance of the Center from Belgrade, main political and administrative center where all accompanying elements necessary for a successful realization of the asylum procedure are – this may drastically increase the costs of the procedure, and also the Bosnia and Herzegovina border is very close.
Most of the residents of the Center (48 of them at the moment) come from Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, but there are people from other countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Cuba, etc.
Four people work in the Center and surveillance is provided by a private security firm. All of them work hard doing their best to make the lives of asylum seekers bearable.
Asylum Protection Center
