Centar za zaštitu i pomoć tražiocima azila / Asylum Protection Center

At the very beginning of implementation of the new Asylum Law in April 2008, an Asylum Office was established as an organized unit of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia, which issues first instance decisions on asylum seekers’ applications. Although this is something new, and although the asylum procedure in our country is still in its developing stage, and there are some technical problems, officers of the Ministry of Interior demonstrated while carrying out their tasks in this field a high level of commitment to cooperation not only with UNHCR but with the Asylum Center as well. Read More Namely, in most cases asylum seekers upon their arrival to our country first come into contact with the police, and then with the Asylum Office representatives. According to our experience, the police officers act properly towards asylum seekers so far; only a few irregularities were registered, which were corrected in a short time. The fact that police officers were able to notice irregularities very quickly, which were most often of technical nature and rarely the result of inexperience or lack of knowledge, confirms that the Serbian Police is fully aware of its role in the asylum procedure and determined to build-up legally perfect procedure, followed by maximal respect of human rights of asylum seekers from the moment they enter our country to the very end of the asylum procedure.