A Romanian national recently expelled from Serbia is safe, and the Romanian Embassy in Belgrade has requested clarifications from Serbian authorities of the reasons why the measure was taken, Romania’s Foreign Ministry (MAE) reported on Thursday.
It is an incident that took place in the Republic of Serbia, involving citizens of third countries and EU member states, including Romania, who participated in a workshop for members of non-governmental organisations hosted by Belgrade.
On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, the Romanian Embassy in Belgrade was contacted by a Romanian national, a member of a Romanian non-governmental organisation dealing with social projects, a participant in the mentioned seminar, who reported that, that night, he was asked to identify himself by the local police authorities and taken to the headquarters of a police station in Belgrade, with other participants in the seminar.
Subsequently, the measure of leaving Serbia within 24 hours was ordered with regard to the Romanian citizen and other participating foreign citizens, as well as the measure of banning entry into Serbia for a period of one year.
The Romanian national told the embassy that the measure was ordered without further explanation, allegedly for national security reasons, according to Serbian legislation.
„Given the extremely harsh nature of the measure, the embassy immediately notified the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, officially, requesting, in the exercise of its the provision of consular assistance, clarifications on the reasons that led to the above-mentioned measures being taken,” according to MAE.
The Romanian citizen, who left Serbia safely on Wednesday, received advice on the ways to challenge the measure ordered under the Serbian legislation.
MAE and the Romanian Embassy in Belgrade, in consultation with other diplomatic missions whose citizens were targeted by similar measures, keep the case under consideration.
Serbian police have detained, interrogated and expelled several young foreigners from EU countries who were participating in a workshop for civil society leaders, according to the DPA news agency.
The people included five Croatians, as well as Romanian and Irish citizens, who were visiting the country to take part in a two-day workshop, entitled NGO Academy, organized by the Austrian Erste Foundation and the Vienna School of Economics.
According to the Croatian nationals involved, the group was sitting at the bar of their hotel in the capital Belgrade after the workshop, when plain-clothes police officers detained them and took them to a police station.
The authorities reportedly said this was for „endangering the security of Serbia and its citizens.”
The expulsion of several EU citizens from Serbia is unprecedented, such a measure having in the past mainly targeted Russian opponents who took refuge in Serbia.
A spokeswoman for the Austrian Erste Foundation expressed her „dismay” to dpa. „For us, this is simply inexplicable,” she said, emphasizing that the NGO Academy has been held in many locations across Central and Eastern Europe since 2013, including regularly in Belgrade.
Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman said his ministry would issue a note of protest and would inform the European Commission, as well as Poland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, about the ‘humiliating treatment of Croatian citizens’ by the Serbian authorities.
AGERPRES
