The Commissariat for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia published the Migration Profile of Serbia for 2017. The migration profile is a document that consolidates data on all categories of migrants in the country and is published for the eighth year in a row. The basic idea of the Migratory Profile is to serve as an instrument that will assist national actors in planning adequate migration policies, as well as the representatives of civil society and the academic community in analyzing current migration flows. The report states that in terms of external migration, the Republic of Serbia is a traditionally emigration area and that it now records a clear negative migration balance.
The migration profile covers data from the field of general cross-border mobility, international migration, statistics related to the prevention of illegal entry and stay, statistics on forced migration and international protection, as well as statistics on internal migration.
During 2017, the highest number of visas, out of a total of 9,276, was issued to citizens of China (14.6%), Libya (12.2%), Lebanon (8.6%), India (5.3%), Egypt (5, 1%), then stateless persons and citizens of South Africa, Georgia, Iraq, Algeria, Jordan, Nigeria, Armenia, the Philippines. Other countries account for less than two percent each of the total number of visas issued.
In the immigrant population (persons staying longer than 12 months), the majority are from China (17.4%), Russia (13.5%), FYR Macedonia (6.9%), Romania (6.7%) and Libya 6.1%). In 2017, 6,714 temporary residence permits were issued for the first time. The highest number of temporary residence permits issued for the first time in 2017 was for citizens of China (14%) and Russia (10.1%), while among the total number of foreigners with temporary residence permits most come from China (3,303), Russia (2,795) and Libya (1,677). The most common basis is the work and family reunification. According to the full structure of persons with approved residency based on work during 2017, most are men with 79.9%, while among the persons with approved family residence, 69.3% are women. At the end of 2017 there were 20,524 foreigners with a temporary residence permit.
There were 7,369 permanently settled foreigners in the Republic of Serbia at the end of 2017 and the most frequent basis was marriage (67,7%) and stay over 10 years (21,3%) with a smaller number of persons with permanent residence permits based on stay over 5 years (9%), due to the interest of the Republic of Serbia or for humanitarian reasons (1.5%) and for persons originating from the territory of the Republic of Serbia (0.5%). The most settled foreigners are from China (21.3%), Romania (15.5%) and Russia (9.8%).
During 2017, 23,507 foreigners acquired citizenship of the Republic of Serbia. Considering the previous citizenship, most were the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (15,662 or 66.63%), followed by Montenegro (3,430), Croatia (1,732) and Turkey (580).
Regarding the prevention of illegal migration, in 2017, 6,787 foreigners were denied entry at the border crossings, of which the highest number were citizens of Turkey (693), stateless persons (632), citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (612), Germany (612), Iran (393), Bulgaria (367), Georgia (360), India (335) and Romania (258). Also, in 2017, a cancellation of stay measure was issued to 3,717 persons, of which the highest number were citizens of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Albania. The removal of a foreigner measure was imposed on 84 persons. With the help of the IOM office, a total of 234 persons were returned to their country of origin voluntarily, of which the majority were citizens of Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Algeria.
During 2017, 3,933 of its citizens, mostly from Germany, were returned to the Republic of Serbia.
According to the Law on Refugees in 2017, 27,802 refugees live in Serbia, all from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The number of internally displaced persons from the territory of Kosovo and Metohija was 201,047. Reduction in the number of registered refugees was not the result of the return of those persons to the countries of previous residence, but the integration process in the Republic of Serbia.
Among the challenges that are stated are the fact that, in spite of numerous regulations that allow the rights of migrants, in accordance with the Law on Civil Servants (Article 45), only Serbian citizens can work as civil servants in the public sector and even though they are allowed to work in state or public enterprises, and also the fact that there is no defined program for managing labor migration or specially established visa programs. There is also currently no comprehensive system that ensures that authorities will be warned if a foreigner exceeds the period of stay for which they received a visa.