Asylum in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina grants two forms of international protection. Refugee status is for a person with a well-founded fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group who cannot or will not seek the protection of the country of origin or habitual residence. Subsidiary protection is for a person who does not qualify as a refugee but faces a real risk of serious harm on return, such as the death penalty, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or a serious threat to life from indiscriminate violence in an armed conflict.

Asylum is not processed by UNHCR in BiH; it is the responsibility of the BiH authorities. UNHCR and its legal aid partner give information and support during the procedure.

You can ask for asylum as soon as you arrive, at your first contact with the Border Police or the Service for Foreigners' Affairs, by saying that you want asylum or that you fear returning to your country. If you approach the Border Police, they notify the Service and direct you to the nearest of its 16 field offices. The Service issues an attestation of the expressed intention to seek asylum, which allows you to stay in the country and to be accommodated, if there is space, in the Delijaš asylum centre or a temporary reception centre.

From the date of the attestation you have 14 days to formally apply. In practice the Sector for Asylum of the Ministry of Security sends an invitation to your registered address, which can take longer than 14 days when many people are waiting. At registration bring all your documents; you then receive an asylum-seeker card as a temporary identity document, and your passport stays with the Ministry until a final decision.

After registration, you or your lawyer receive an invitation to a personal interview, where officials of the Sector for Asylum ask about the reasons for your flight and why you cannot return. The invitation should arrive within six months of registration, and exceptionally within 18 months. The authorities must provide an interpreter in a language you understand. The Sector for Asylum then issues a decision granting refugee status, granting subsidiary protection or rejecting the claim; claims can be decided in a regular or an accelerated procedure.

Once refugee status or subsidiary protection is granted, the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees becomes responsible and supports access to accommodation, employment and education. Beneficiaries can live in the Salakovac refugee reception centre or at a registered private address. People with refugee, subsidiary or temporary protection may work without a work permit, and recognised refugees can sponsor family reunification.

Asylum seekers have the right to stay in BiH until a final decision, to information about the procedure, to free legal aid, to accommodation in the asylum centre, a temporary reception centre or a private address they arrange themselves, to primary health care, to primary and secondary education, to an interpreter, to psycho-social support and to contact UNHCR. They gain access to the labour market if no decision is made within nine months of the claim for reasons not attributable to them.

Obligations include respecting BiH law, cooperating to establish identity and the facts, handing over available documents, applying to renew the asylum-seeker card 15 days before it expires, reporting its loss within three days and reporting the address and any change of address within three days, because all invitations and the decision are sent there. Leaving a centre without permission ends the right to accommodation there.

A negative decision can be challenged before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The deadline is eight days from receipt of the decision in the accelerated procedure and 15 days in the regular procedure. Free legal aid is available for the appeal.

Free legal aid is provided by the Office for Free Legal Aid of the BiH Ministry of Justice (+387 33 281 624) and by the NGO Vaša prava BiH, UNHCR's partner (+387 33 789 105, or +387 61 102 034 and +387 61 102 035 by WhatsApp or Viber), which holds sessions at the Delijaš, Blažuj and Lipa centres. UNHCR in Sarajevo can be reached on +387 33 666 160. The Sector for Asylum of the Ministry of Security is on +387 33 492 490. Nobody may ask for payment in exchange for help with an asylum claim.