Internal Affairs Ministry: Croatian doctor permitted to stay in Serbia

The Ministry recalled that on April 8 of this year, the Belgrade City Police Administration issued a decision terminating the temporary residence permit of Croatian citizen Arien Stojanovic Ivkovic, banning her entry into Serbia, and ordering her to leave the country within seven days.

Three days later, Stojanovic Ivkovic filed an appeal, stating that she had graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Serbia, is married to a Serbian citizen with whom she has a child, and has no prior criminal or misdemeanor convictions. Her legal representative also pointed out that the Police Administration decision failed to provide specific reasons for the order.

The Internal Affairs Ministry said that it had contacted the state authority responsible for the security of the Republic of Serbia, requesting a re-evaluation of whether Stojanovic Ivkovic’s residency still constituted an “unacceptable security risk.”

The authority responded that “due to new findings and changed circumstances, there are no longer grounds for revoking the temporary residence permit, nor for imposing a one-year entry ban into Serbia.”

Arien Stojanovic Ivkovic graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade, where she also found employment. She is married to a Serbian citizen, with whom she has a young child. She has lived in the Serbian capital for over a decade and had reportedly faced no issues until now. However, on April 8, she was summoned to the Directorate for Foreigners, where she was served with the decision revoking her temporary residency and banning her from entering the country for one year.

“Something like this has never happened in Serbia before. To deport a woman with a child from the country over an Instagram post - that is unprecedented,” Stojanovic Ivkovic said after receiving the news of her deportation.