The Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pašalić, said today that the number of legally invisible persons in the Republic of Serbia has significantly decreased, but that there are still citizens and children who are not recognized by the system, especially from Roma communities in informal settlements.

At the conference organized by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, the Protector of Citizens and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on the occasion of the eighth anniversary of the #JaPripadam (#Ibelong) global campaign for the complete eradication of statelessness, Pašalić stated that residents of informal settlements are still in a difficult situation and at risk of statelessness.

Pašalić appealed to the competent authorities to make additional efforts in order to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic, which are still visible in the social and economic segment of the life of members of the Roma community in informal settlements.

The Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Aleksandar Martinović, stated that systemic solutions enabled smooth registration in the birth register and improved other rights from personal status, and added that cases of a person not being registered in the birth register now only occur as an exception.

Martinović stated that the ministry's focus in the future will be on solving the remaining cases, but also preventing new cases of legally invisible persons, especially when it comes to members of the Roma community.

The acting head of the UNHCR Representation in Serbia, Stefanie Krause, pointed out that the number of Roma without identity documents in Serbia has significantly decreased since 2014, when the #JaPripadam campaign was launched, and added that Serbia could become one of the first countries in Europe to eradicate the risk of statelessness in the next two years, until the end of the campaign.