On this page, you will find:
To find organisations working for LGBTQI+ rights, visit our Serbia LGBTQI+ Resources page.
For Serbia country of origin information (COI) experts, reports, commentaries, and relevant documents visit our Serbia COI page.
Refugee protection
Click here to see the numbers and origins of refugees hosted by Serbia.
The following sections contain information on the most important international treaties and agreements of which Serbia is signatory, as well as national legislation relevant to the protection of refugees.
Since 2001 Serbia has been both a party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and to its 1967 Protocol. It has also accepted the UN Statelessness Conventions.
Serbia’s national refugee protection framework is based on the country’s Law on Asylum from 2007. The Asylum Office is responsible for the refugee status determination process, but the adjudication body is integrated to the border police, there is no independent and
effective review mechanism at the second instance.
Legal aid organisations
Website
Address: Beogradska 54, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Tel: +381 11 30 85 328, +381 11 34 47 121 (fax), and +381 64 82 46 508 (mobile)
Email: bgcentar@bgcentar.org.rs
Contact person: Nikola Kovacevic
Email: kovacevic@bgcentar.org.rs
With UNHCR’s support, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights has been implementing a project aimed at providing adequate legal assistance to asylum seekers. The BCHR team is continuously in touch with the asylum seekers by regularly visiting the reception centres at which they are accommodated.
Belgrade centre is also cooperating with the state authorities charged with asylum issues. Monitoring the decision-making process and insight in all the individual decisions on asylum applications is helping the BCHR to gain a clear picture of the degree in which the asylum-seekers’ human rights are respected, an obligation the Republic of Serbia has assumed.
Apart from providing direct legal aid, the BCHR will also engage in raising the awareness of the public and the competent authorities about this topic; promoting new, adequate solutions to the identified problems; keeping precise statistical data on the number of asylum seekers; and collecting information about their countries of origin. The BCHR team is cooperating with the Refugee Law Clinic of the Belgrade Law School and share its knowledge and experience with future legal practitioners.
Website
Facebook
Address: Tomaša Ježa 10/4, Belgrade
Tel: +381 64 824 65 19
Email: nikola.kovacevic@ideje.rs
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:00.
It offers legal counselling, legal representation, and asissts on the matters of extradition, detention and integration.
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Tel: +381 11 32 42 889
Email: admin@idcserbia.org and legal.belgrade@idcserbia.org
Provides free legal aid to help solve the legal and social problems of refugees, IDPs the socially vulnerable. Offices of IDC Serbia in Belgrade and Niš, have established good collaboration with municipal and local authorities. Legal aid requests are mostly in the following areas: labour/employment rights, social/economic rights (including the right to the home and property), access to pension rights, family/matrimonial rights.
Website
Address: Kosevo 28, 71.000 SARAJEVO, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Tel: +387 (0)3 32 25 538
Email: mpdl@mpdl.org
The Movement for Peace-MPDL-provides free legal assistance and representation before the courts in Kosovo to collective issues such as the recovery of property, access to fundamental rights or recovery of personal papers found in Kosovo.
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Head office:
Address: Alekse Nenadovica 7-III, Belgrade, Serbia, 11000
Tel: +381 11 34 44 486
Fax: +381 11 34 44 483
Email: bgoffice@praxis.org.rs
Field office:
Address: Heroja Maricica 70, Kraljevo, Serbia, 36000
Tel: +381 36 31 26 59
Fax: +381 36 31 26 58
Email: kvoffice@praxis.org.rs
The NGO Praxis provides free legal aid to the most marginalized and socially excluded communities, national minorities (Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian), displaced persons and people who have returned on the basis of readmission agreements. Its work covers the fields of nationality, personal documents, housing, education, healthcare, social protection and employment, as well as the area of sexual and gender-based violence.
Organisations providing other support to refugees
Website
Address: Misarska no. 16, Serbia, 11000, Belgrade
Tel: +381 11 323 30 70 or +381 11 407 94 65
Fax: +381 11 323 30 70
Email: sediste@apc-cza.org
Contact person: Rados Djurovic
Email: rados.djurovic@apc-cza.org
Tel.: +381 63 704 7080
APC/CZA has been providing legal, psychosocial and integration/interaction aid to asylum seekers/persons granted protection all over Serbia (especially in and around all 5 asylum camps, in areas of Subotica, Belgrade, Loznica, Sjenica, Tutin, Lajkovac, Valjevo,etc.) since 2008 for almost 8 years and as such recognized in the Strategy of the Government of the Republic of Serbia for managing migration (The Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 59/2009). APC/CZA has been ECRE (European Council of Refugees and Exiles) member since 2011.
Website
Address: Pukovnika Bacića 3, Belgrade, Serbia, 11000
Tel: +381 11 26 64 866 or +381 26 64 856
Fax: +381 11 26 60 972 or +381 26 60 973
E-mail: office@grupa484.org.rs
Provides direct assistance to the most vulnerable population (including refugees) through medical, social, psychological and legal support. More than 100,000 people have been beneficiaries of the programme of direct support.
Website
Belgrade office:
Address: 1100 Beograd. Knez Milosa 4
Tel.: (+381) 11 3349 170 or (+381) 113349167
Email: office@helsinki.org.rs or biserkos@eunet.rs
Contact person: Sonja Biserko
Email: biserkos@gmail.com (only use this email if no response is received from general email)
Pristina Office:
Address: Mother Teresa 28/3, 10000, Prishtina
Tel.: +377 (0) 44 119575 or +381 (0) 38 767 127
Email: office@helsinki.org.rs or biserkos@eunet.rs
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia offers free and comprehensive legal aid to people seeking asylum and recognised refugees in Serbia. In addition to assisting refugees and others in the implementation of their rights, they also monitor the conduct of the police and army regarding human rights standards. They also monitor prison conditions, the rights of detainees, and FR Yugoslavia’s compliance with principles contained in international human rights related documents signed by the state. In addition, they closely observe the new laws and regulations expected to be adopted and document the situation of social rights and the proclaimed equality of sexes while also publicising human rights cases.
Website
Address: Vojvođanskih brigada 17, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Tel.: +381 21 528-132 , 520-030
Email: hcitns@gmail.com
Contact person : Ms. Ivana Vukašević
The Humanitarian Centre for Integration and Tolerance (HCIT) is and has been UNHCR’s implementing partner for the last 16 years. HCIT has a field team that consists of 2 legal advisers, 10 interpreters, 8 aid staff members, and 4 other staff members which provide legal assistance and access to asylum procedure in Serbia as well as food and non-food items to refugees. HCIT handled the refugee’s crisis by covering the field 24/7 and having their refugee collaborators and interpreters for Arabic and Farsi working around the clock.
They provide support to refugees in emergency humanitarian cases by helping them gain access to assistance from relevant institutions. However, HCIT provides concrete assistance in emergency humanitarian cases where the competent institutions are not able to react immediately or do not have the capacity to provide certain kinds of assistance (eg, providing funding for emergency accommodation of mothers with children, providing funds for their transportation to one of the centres for asylum etc.)
Website
Facebook
Address: Admirala Geprata 10, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Tel/Fax: +381 (11) 76 17 197 or +381 76 17 205
Email: office@ian.org.rs or crtv@ian.org.rs
IAN is a local NGO that supports human rights violation survivors and other marginalised and vulnerable groups, including refugees, IDPs, torture and war trauma victims. IAN’s services include: psychological/psychiatric help; medical care; educational programmes for professional empowerment and legal aid. IAN’s legal service provides legal advice for torture victims and refugees in the area of labour/employment and other social-economic rights as well as representation before the court in cases of torture, both in criminal procedures and civil procedures for damage compensation. IAN offers its services in Belgrade as well as other areas of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Address: Arse Teodorovica 3, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Tel/Fax: +381 (21) 42 30 21 or +381 42 30 24
Email: nshc@eunet.rs
Contact person Danijela Korac-Mandic, Programme Coordinator
Email: danijela.nshc@gmail.com
Contact person: Cila Stojanovic, Project Coordinator
Email: chila.nshc@gmail.com
Counselling Centre:
Address: Bulevar vojvode Stepe 1, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Tel: +381 0 (21) 422 969
Email: savetovaliste.nshc@gmail.com
Novi Sad Humanitarian Centre provides comprehensive psychosocial support to the most vulnerable refugees and IPDs, and to develop local (municipal) networks of social and humanitarian assistance for these beneficiaries. Sixteen mobile teams consisting of psychologists and social workers are implementing this project in all 46 Vojvodinian municipalities. They are providing psychological support services, social services, advocacy and information provision in direct contact with beneficiaries, through home visits and visits to collective centres. In Novi Sad such services are also provided within the Psychosocial Counseling Center at Bulevar vojvode Stepe 1, Novi Sad, Serbia. In Central and Southern Serbia this project has been implemented by three local NGOs: ” Amity-snaga prijateljstva ” from Belgrade, ”Sigma Plus” from Nis and ”Horizonti” from Cacak.
Facebook
Address: Pajsijeva 4, Belgrade
Email: rhys.hartley.ras@gmail.com; jana.canovic.ras@gmail.com
Contact persons: Rhys Hartley and Jana Canović
Refugee Aid Serbia (RAS) was formed in winter 2015/16 by a group of concerned citizens and residents in Belgrade to offer immediate aid to those passing through the city en-route to other destinations in Europe. With the changing political landscape in Europe, RAS responded and expanded its distribution efforts across the city, to government-run camps, and to border areas up until 2018. In April 2017, it co-founded The Workshop in Belgrade city centre – the city’s only solely education-focused centre for refugees, and has developed curricula from “survival” English language through to C2 level, along with a German and Serbian language curricula. Until mid-2020, the centre had offered classes to over 250 students. The organisation is also committed to awareness-raising of the refugee situation in Belgrade and around the country, and regularly hosts events such as exhibitions, film screenings, and cross-community gatherings in an attempt to break down barriers between the different communities in Serbia. In the past, RAS has also had a Field Team that conducted monitoring of new arrivals in Belgrade and around the northern borders, and provided referral and distribution services accordingly.
Serbia LGBTQI+ Resources
Find organisations working for refugee LGBTQI+ rights in Serbia.
Serbia COI
Find Serbia Country of Origin information (COI) experts, reports, commentaries, and relevant documents.
We are always looking to expand the resources on our platform. If you know about relevant resources, or you are aware of organisations and/or individuals to include in our directories, please get in touch.
Last updated June 2023