NGO: 50,000 Russians Fleeing War Have Remained in Serbia

Rados Djurovic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

On March 30, Rados Djurovic, the director of the non-governmental Asylum Protection Center, said that over 300,000 Russian citizens have passed through Serbia since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Of that number, 50,000 have remained in the country, and the state should work on assimilating them because the majority are highly-educated individuals, Djurovic added.

Speaking for BETA, the NGO head explained that the visa-free regime between Serbia and Russia allows Russians to spend up to 30 days in Serbia without any permit, but that, in the majority of cases, this does not correspond to the nature of their stay – which is a desire to evade the fallout of the war.

“In our estimation, about 20 percent of [Russian citizens currently residing in Serbia] have secured residence permits based on employment, marriage to a Serbian citizen, ownership of real estate or in some other way, while the rest attempt to extend their stay by leaving and re-entering the country every 30 days,” Djurovic said, adding that the number of Russians seeking asylum in Serbia is statistically negligible.

According to him, many Russian immigrants have come to Serbia due to the difficult circumstances in Russia, over problems caused by their political views because they do not want to participate in the war. However, the majority have migrated because of the sanctions preventing them from working and earning as they did in the past. Djurovic explained that most of the immigrants from Russia are computer programmers, designers and other individuals who work remotely and receive payment via international transactions.

The NGO director further stated that Belgrade is not the only location where Russians choose to settle. The Russian immigrant community is spread throughout Serbian cities and towns, he said, where they often form insulated circles which tend to develop independently of Serbia’s mainstream society.