The Republic of Serbia has been in the epicenter of the Western Balkan migration route due to its strategic and geopolitical position. As a candidate country for EU membership, Serbia is continuously challenged in the domain of migration management. Since the beginning of an increased influx of migrants in 2015, the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, as a separate government authority, successfully managed to provide all services necessary for a dignified and humane reception of persons passing through Serbia, and it did so based on decades of experience in reception, care and integration of forced migrants from former Yugoslav Republics.
Mr. Ivan Gerginov, Deputy Commissioner, Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, Republic of Serbia, has been a key policy-maker in the various refugee and migration crises affecting the Western Balkans since 1992 and is a prominent actor in the Serbian response to the migration crises of 2014-2019. He will share a public lecture on his experiences of working with refugees and migrants from the Yugoslavian crises to the present migrant crises in Europe.