Thanks to the European Union, which through the program "Strengthening Media Freedom in Serbia" financed the project "Looking at European Law: Refugees and Asylees", since February 2014 "Vreme" has published 20 articles on the topic of asylum and refugees. In that period, nine special publications were published, and two panel discussions were organized.
Despite this, the topic of asylum in Serbia is still insufficiently promoted. According to the results of the survey "Attitude of Serbian citizens towards asylum seekers" carried out by CeSid for UNHCR, the majority of Serbian citizens have a neutral attitude towards the growing number of asylum seekers in our country. On the other hand, a large number of Serbian citizens express intolerant attitudes towards this population.
With the fact that there will be more and more immigrants from Asia and Africa (this year they were registered one hundred times more than in 2008), such data can be worrying. Especially in the context of the shortcomings of the Serbian system, which is not sufficiently rounded and self-sufficient to deal with current problems, let alone with what comes in the future. The objective shortcomings of the asylum system in Serbia are: lack of accommodation capacity, disproportion of expressed intentions for asylum and performed asylum procedures, inactivity of MUP officials who should implement the procedure, problems of accepting the migrant population in places where centers for accommodation of asylum seekers are located, inactivity local governments, the lack of integration strategies for those few people who received some of the refugee protection...
During the duration of the project, "Vremena" reporters were in almost all cities in Serbia where there are centers for accommodation of asylum seekers, they spoke with all relevant interlocutors and presented to the reading audience a series of testimonies of the migrants themselves. "Vreme" was primarily concerned with informing and bringing asylum problems closer to its readers, but also promoting tolerance and breaking down prejudices towards this sensitive and vulnerable group.
As for the topic of refugees, people from refugee associations who today, 20 years after the wars in which they lost their homes, feel forgotten and neglected came to "Vremen" with words of gratitude for the media attention. This project was an opportunity for their voice to be heard again.
"Vreme" thanks the project's donors for their help, as well as all interlocutors, authors of texts and collaborators.
The project "Looking at European law: Refugees and asylum seekers" is financed by the European Union (through the EU Delegation in Serbia) through the "Strengthening media freedom in Serbia" program. The publication of this publication was made possible with the financial assistance of the European Union. The content of the publication is solely the responsibility of the weekly "Vreme" and in no way reflects the views and opinion of the European Union.
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