No.07-00-197/2015-02  Date: 13 August 2015

OPINION

The opinion was issued in the procedure regarding the complaint lodged by S.S. and K.R. of B. against the MoI’s Border Police Directorate on account of discriminatory treatment by a public official when crossing the border at the Nikola Tesla Airport. The complainants claimed that they were supposed to depart to Gothenburg on 21 April 2015 but at the passport control the police officer did not allow them to leave the country. The complainants consider that there was no justified reason for not letting them leave the country, and that the only reason for such conduct of the police officer was S.S.’s Roma nationality. In its declaration regarding the complaint, the Border Police Directorate contested the allegations pertaining to S.S.’s nationality, stating that the complainants were not allowed to leave the country because they did not meet the prescribed requirements for going abroad. In the course of the procedure it was established that on 21 April 2015 the police officer at the passport control of the Nikola Tesla Airport did not allow S.S. and K.R. to leave the country because they did not meet the requirements for continuing their journey (they did not have return airplane tickets, paid travel insurance and a letter of guarantee) prescribed by the Regulation Laying Down in Detail the Manner of Exercising Police Powers of Border Police Officers and Duties of Persons Crossing the State Border. The Border Police Directorate offered sufficient evidence for coming to the conclusion that the decision not to allow S.S. and K.R. to continue their journey had not been influenced by S.S.’s Roma nationality. For this reason the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality issued the opinion according to which the Border Police Directorate of the Serbian MoI did not violate the provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination by not allowing S.S. and K.R. to leave the Republic of Serbia at the passport control at the Nikola Tesla Airport.