Ms. Jelena Stojanović, Deputy Protector of Citizens for Child Rights and Gender Equality, met today with Mr. Bojan Stanković, a citizen of the Republic of Serbia, whose wife Efrosina, a citizen of Rwanda, was not granted a temporary stay in our country on the grounds of family reunification, while the child born last year has not yet been issued a health card.

During the conversation, Ms. Stojanović told Mr. Stanković that the Protector of Citizens, seven days ago i.e. immediately upon learning from the media about their problem, had launched own-initiative investigation against the Ministry of Interior and Republic Health Insurance Fund.

The Deputy Protector of Citizens also stated that she expected to obtain answers from the competent authorities by the middle of following week.

The Protector of Citizens learned from the media on 10 February 2021 that the citizen of Rwanda had been charged for health service at UCCS Clinic for Gynecology and Obstetrics, even though she was married to a Serbian citizen, and that their child, born mid-last year had not been issued a health card.

For such reasons, but also due to media reports on the reasons why the citizen of Rwanda was not granted a temporary stay in the Republic of Serbia on the grounds of family reunification, the Protector of Citizens has launched investigations against the Ministry of Interior and the RHIF and set a 15 day deadline to be notified of all the circumstances of this case.

The Protector of Citizens determined that Ministry of Interior officers during the July 2020 protests in Belgrade and Novi Sad acted illegally and improperly against certain citizens, that they did not have prominent official IDs and that the Internal Control Sector only in one case established the identity of the persons who acted illegally.

Further to the information obtained from the media and social network videos, the Protector of Citizens initiated eight own initiative investigations to control work regularity and legality of the Ministry of Interior and determined that in all those cases there were omissions regarding the treatment of individual citizens by police officers in the period from 8 to 11 July 2020.

The omissions consist in the unauthorized use of force and the illegal and improper use of coercive means by police officers against individual citizens, thus infringing on their right to inviolability of physical and mental integrity and the right to dignity, and then in the fact that the police officers did not have discernable official IDs, which made it difficult to conduct an investigation and determine their individual responsibility.

The Protector of Citizens also identified as an omission that Internal Control Sector did not immediately upon learning, i.e. without delay, undertake all actions and activities in order to establish the factual situation and obtain evidence, as well as individual responsibilities of police officers who acted illegally and improperly against individual citizens.

In the recommendations, the Protector of Citizens states that it is necessary for the Ministry of Interior to ensure, through continuous training, that all police officers act in compliance with the law when exercising their powers, as well as to ensure that all police officers, when securing public gatherings, maintaining public order and peace and applying police powers to citizens, have discernable official IDs on the grounds of which they can be easily identified.

"The Minister of Interior, Police Director and the Heads of Police Administrations, fulfilling their role in the fight against impunity for torture, will send a strong message that inadequate treatment of citizens is illegal, unprofessional and subject to adequate sanctions. Achieving this goal will be ensured by conducting an effective investigation, determining individual responsibility and sanctioning responsible police officers, “the recommendation reads.

The Protector of Citizens specifies in the recommendation that the Internal Control Sector should take all actions aimed at identifying responsible police officers immediately in the future, as soon as it learns that there has been illegal action to the detriment of citizens' rights. The Protector of Citizens expects that the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia will inform him within 60 days about acting on this recommendation.

Upon learning from the media about suspected numerous shortcomings of the competent authorities regarding the exercise of the rights of the citizen of Rwanda married to a citizen of Serbia, the Protector of Citizens launched own-initiative investigation against the Ministry of Interior and the Republic Health Insurance Fund.

The Protector of Citizens learned from the media that a citizen of Rwanda was charged a service in the Clinic for Gynecology and Obstetrics, Clinical Center of Serbia even though she had been married to a Serbian citizen, as well as that their child, who was born mid last year in the Republic of Serbia, has not yet been issued a health card. The Protector of Citizens will also investigate the media allegations about the reasons why a Rwandan citizen was not granted a temporary stay in the Republic of Serbia on the grounds of family reunification.

The Protector of Citizens will request the MOI to provide information within 15 days on the circumstances of the case, and primarily on whether the Rwandan citizen applied to this ministry with a request for temporary residence in Serbia on the grounds of family reunification and, if so, why temporary residence was not granted to her.

In addition, given that it is necessary for the Rwandan citizen to stay in Serbia as she is married to our citizen and has a child with him, the Protector of Citizens requests MOI to notify him on the activities that can be taken to prevent family separation.

From the RHIF, the Protector of Citizens requests that he be informed on all the circumstances of this case within 15 days, and primarily on whether the Rwandan citizen had health insurance deriving from her husband’s insurance at the time of giving birth last year and whether the hospital acted properly when it charged the foreign national for health care.

The Protector of Citizens also requests the competent Health Fund to inform him about the reasons why a health card has not yet been issued to a child whose father resides in Serbia and holding citizenship, as well as what measures will be taken to issue the card to the child as soon as possible.

Today, in a several-hour-long meeting, Mr. Zoran Pašalić, the Protector of Citizens, talked with the representatives of the Internet Workers Association exchanging information on the situation of the workers earning income from abroad after the Tax Administration issued forms for them to pay taxes for the previous five years.

At the meeting, initiated by the Protector of Citizens at the end of the last week in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the facts regarding the position of the workers on the Internet, the Associations’ representatives announced that they would submit to the Protector of Citizens relevant documents in their possession.

After learning that citizens who earn income from abroad from freelancing were called to retroactively report and pay taxes for the previous few years, the Protector of Citizens launched own-initiative investigation to control the Tax Administration of the Ministry of Finance.