Protection of Migrants from Extradition in Serbia due to Risk of Persecution

In December 2017, the Serbian Minister of Justice ordered the extradition of A.C. to Turkey despite serious claims that he is threatened with persecution in his country. This case, along with some previous cases of asylum seekers in extradition detention, has revealed a lack of consistency of Serbian authorities in application of the principle of non‐refoulement. Thus, the extradition authorities do not take into consideration this principle, believing that a decision on this matter ought to be made by bodies involved in the asylum procedure. On the other hand, in most of the cases, asylum authorities apply the "third country concept" and do not take into consideration that an individual is being extradited to their country of origin. Therefore, the authors conclude that the principle of non‐refoulement is not adequately applied in practice and that it is necessary to undertake certain measures in order to prevent any future similar cases.