BELGRADE: After a gap of 27 years, direct flights between Iran and Serbia resumed on Saturday, when an IranAir jet touched down at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport, Serbian media reported.
IranAir is offering a direct service between Tehran and Belgrade twice weekly, with all flights fully booked until the end of the summer, the reports said.
But the service, which was launched following a visa liberalization agreement between the two countries, has raised fears it could open up a new migrant route for those seeking to stay in the EU illegally, a Serbian charity has warned.
A second Iranian carrier, Qeshm Air, is also planning to launch a service between the two capitals starting from March 19.
In August 2017, Iran and Serbia agreed to liberalize visas for travel between the two countries, sparking a surge in interest on the part of Iranians.
According to the Serbian non-governmental refugee support project Info Park, some Iranians are using the visa liberalization agreement to come to Europe and stay there illegally as migrants.
Last month, Info Park said a number of Iranians had arrived in Belgrade legally as tourists but had not returned home, proceeding instead to EU countries, notably France and Germany.
“Although they entered Serbia as tourists, interviews have revealed that many Iranians use their stay in Belgrade to establish connections with smugglers, who will transfer them to their desired destination, across the borders of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary or Romania,” Info Park said at the time.
It said those interviewed said they were leaving for a variety of reasons including fears for their rights and freedoms, particularly linked to their political, religious or sexual orientation.
Info Park said an estimated 600 Iranians could arrive in Belgrade in a single week, based on the current transport capacity.
“Seeing as most of these new-arrivals do not intend to return, the migration systems in Europe must recalibrate for this new route and demographic among the migrant populaces,” the NGO said.
Serbian Trade Minister Rasim Ljajic said authorities in the two countries would investigate possible abuses of the visa liberalization agreement.
Checks would be reinforced in Tehran and various bilateral deals would be signed with the aim of clamping down on illegal migration, the ministry said.
Since the visa requirements were lifted, around 7,000 Iranians have traveled to Serbia, of which 485 have applied for asylum, the ministry said.
Serbia was one of the countries on the so-called Balkans route to western Europe, with hundreds of thousands of migrants passing through until the route was shut down at the start of 2016.
In January, the UN’s Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said there were around 4,000 migrants currently in Serbia.
Iran, Serbia resume direct flights after 27-year gap
Iran, Serbia resume direct flights after 27-year gap
Lawsuit challenges Trump administration’s ending of protections for Somalis
- The lawsuit cites a series of statements Trump has made describing Somalis as “garbage” and “low IQ people” who “contribute nothing.”
BOSTON: Immigrant rights advocates filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to stop US President Donald Trump’s administration from next week ending legal protections that allow nearly 1,100 Somalis to live and work in the United States. The lawsuit, brought by four Somalis and two advocacy groups, challenges the US Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Somali immigrants, whom Trump has derided in public remarks. Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in January announced that TPS for Somalis would end on March 17, arguing that Somalia’s conditions had improved, despite fighting continuing between Somali forces and Al-Shabab militants. The plaintiffs, who include the groups African Communities Together and Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, in the lawsuit filed in Boston federal court argue the move was procedurally flawed and driven by a discriminatory, predetermined agenda.
The lawsuit cites a series of statements Trump has made describing Somalis as “garbage” and “low IQ people” who “contribute nothing.”
The plaintiffs said the administration is ending TPS for Somalia and other countries due to unconstitutional bias against non-white immigrants, not based on objective assessments of country conditions.
“The termination of TPS for Somalia is racism masking as immigration policy,” Omar Farah, executive director at the legal group Muslim Advocates, said in a statement.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously said TPS was “never intended to be a de facto amnesty program.”
TPS is a form of humanitarian immigration protection that shields eligible migrants from deportation and allows them to work. Under Noem, DHS has moved to end TPS for a dozen countries, sparking legal challenges. The administration on Saturday announced plans to pursue an appeal at the US Supreme Court in order to end TPS for over 350,000 Haitians. It also wants the high court to allow it to end TPS for about 6,000 Syrians.
SOMALI COMMUNITY TARGETED
Somalia was first designated for TPS in 1991, with its latest extension in 2024. About 1,082 Somalis currently hold TPS, and 1,383 more have pending applications, according to DHS. Somalis in Minnesota in recent months had become a target of Trump’s immigration crackdown, with officials pointing to a fraud scandal in which many people charged come from the state’s large Somali community. The Trump administration cited those fraud allegations as a basis for a months-long immigration enforcement surge in Democratic-led Minnesota, during which about 3,000 immigration agents were deployed, spurring protests and leading to the killing of two US citizens by federal agents.
In November, Trump announced he would end TPS for Somalis in Minnesota, and a month later said he wanted them sent “back to where they came from.”
The US Department of State advises against traveling to Somalia, citing crime and civil unrest among numerous factors.
