A passport tailored to a person or voice

JElena Kulidzhan fled from Mostar to Montenegro with her family in 1992. She just started elementary school. After three decades, during which she had the status of a displaced person for twenty years and an identity card for foreigners for ten years, she acquired the right to citizenship of Montenegro only in 2021. Twenty-nine years later.

"After graduating from university, I applied for Montenegrin citizenship, but I was rejected, because at that moment I had a passport from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which I took out so that I could travel (this was not possible with the identification of a displaced person). I had the status of a displaced person until 2011, when I received an identity card for foreigners with permanent residence. On the day I received that document, all the previous years I spent in Montenegro were officially erased and the 10 years of permanent residence, at that time necessary to obtain Montenegrin citizenship, began to count. I acquired the right to Montenegrin citizenship in November 2021, after 29 years spent in Montenegro," Kulidzhan told "Vijesta".

She is 36 years old today. In Montenegro, she completed primary and secondary school, university, got a job, acquired property. She never had the right to vote, because as a stateless person, she has no right to that.

During and after the war, a significant part of her extended family moved around the world.

"All of them relatively quickly received the citizenships of the countries in which they still live today: Sweden, Austria, Germany, Canada, America...".

She is a former journalist and now works in public relations and communications.

And family Tamara Cupac, a journalist from the Mina agency from Podgorica, has been in Montenegro for 27 years. They escaped from Croatia in 1995, after the "Storm" operation. Upon arrival, they received "refugee" booklets, which until 2011 were also their main identification document.

"A year or two before that, I got Croatian citizenship, then getting Montenegrin citizenship was almost impossible. Since 2011, it was possible to apply for that permanent residence, which we did, and then it was approved. We get ID cards that look like the ones Montenegrin citizens have - with the exception that the ID card says 'for foreigners'. The last time I extended it, last year, it says permanent residence permit in that place. Now, as a person with a permanent residence in Montenegro, I do not have the right to vote and I cannot work in institutions where citizenship is one of the conditions", Cupać told "Vijesta".

WHEN POLITICIANS GET IN THE FINGERS...

"Vijesti" recently published a questionnaire whose goal was to identify possible problems in the procedures, but also in the exercise of civil rights for those persons living in Montenegro who have not yet received citizenship.

Out of 504 completed questionnaires, 205 people answered "yes" to the question of whether you have applied for the citizenship of Montenegro. 299 of them, as they stated, did not submit such a request. One of the questions also referred to the current status of the persons filling out the questionnaire, where the answers offered related to residence, as described in the state regulations - temporary for one to five years, permanent from one to 10 years, and registered temporary and permanent residence for 15 years or longer. The latter, according to the completed questionnaires, has 181 persons.

A total of 15 years - five temporary and 10 permanent residence in Montenegro, was until recently one of the prerequisites for the right to acquire Montenegrin citizenship. Recently, this condition was changed, so now 10 years of residence is considered five years of temporary, plus five years of permanent residence in Montenegro.

The Law on Montenegrin Citizenship was adopted in 2008. It envisages four ways of acquisition - by origin, by birth on the territory of Montenegro, by international treaties and agreements, and by admission.

The conditions for acquiring citizenship by admission are regulated separately by Government decisions. The last such decision was adopted by the Government Zdravka Krivokapića just before she was voted no-confidence in the Assembly on February 4.

The amended decision stipulates that 10 years of residence is considered five years of temporary plus five years of permanent residence in Montenegro. The previous legal requirement for admission to Montenegrin citizenship was 10 years of permanent residence in the country.

The Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS) reminds that the decisions regulating the conditions for acquiring citizenship by admission were made in 2020, 2018, 2016, 2012, 2010, and twice in 2008.

Executive director of that NGO Marija Popović Kalezić she told "Vijesti" that due to frequent changes, "one gets the impression that it is only about political influence".

"And not to the desire to settle the field of obtaining Montenegrin citizenship impartially and ultimately, with the best legal intention," she said.

According to her, the latest Amendment to the Decision on the criteria for determining Montenegrin citizenship by admission, which entered into force on February 21, represents a precedent.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) worked on that document for more than a year, but the text was withdrawn after opposition protests. In the end, the Decision was adopted without the knowledge of even the representatives of the department headed by it Sergej Sekulovic.

Before the Decision was adopted, the plan was for the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform to consider the MUP's working document, and only when a joint opinion was adopted in the Assembly would it be sent to the Government for approval.

CEGAS told "Vijesta" that the opinion of the members of the competent Committee does not oblige them to act according to that opinion, but that it would send a clear suggestion to the Government on the good and bad sides of the document that is being decided on. They added that, in terms of decision-making, this could have been a good sequence in achieving the democratic values ​​of society.

"This would reduce the space for particular interests and political influences when arranging legal rules and regulations. It cannot be good that by making decisions by the Government, no matter what they are, the legal text that governs a broad legal field is essentially changed," said Popović Kalezić.

After the adoption of the Decision, then the Vice-President of the Government and the mandate for drafting the new one, Dritan Abazovic, he said that it will be annulled.

Lawyer and member of the SDP Presidency Miloš Vukčević in the meantime, he submitted the initiative to the Constitutional Court for the evaluation of the constitutionality and legality of the provisions of the Decision on Amending the Decision on Criteria for Establishing Conditions for Acquiring Montenegrin Citizenship by Admission. Among other things, he stated that its further application could significantly change the structure of voters.

Journalist Tamara Cupać says that, in relation to the issue of citizenship, the previous government was "very picky".

"After the war and all that it brought us, i.e. took away, we came to Montenegro and found ourselves in the 'crossfire'. Those who look at you and who will always look at you as a second-class citizen, because first you need to be a citizen according to their political standards, and then everything else. On the other side, there are the perverse political games of those who mostly see you as a potential vote in the elections. In the worrisome minority, there is a group of citizens freed from prejudice, imposition of views and ostracism, whose identity, I dare say, has been built, so they do not broadcast their frustrations through a simple administrative matter such as citizenship. Basically, we know that there are legal norms that regulate the conditions and the way to obtain citizenship, and that's all on paper, but when you actually know what's behind it all, when you know that someone won't approve your application for citizenship just because they think that your attitude about certain issues in the state, it does not coincide with his, and he says it very openly, there is no longer a word about legal norms," ​​she says.

DISCRIMINATION AND DUAL CITIZENSHIP

The majority of those who filled out the "Vijesti" questionnaires, 473 of them, stated that they have the citizenship of another country, which according to the Law on Citizenship, without waiving it, excludes the possibility of obtaining Montenegrin citizenship. The answers of those who filled out the "Vijesti" questionnaire also show that among those who do not have Montenegrin, there are people with citizenship of almost all countries of the region. Most of them have the citizenship of Serbia - 240, followed by BiH, whose citizenship is held by 133 people from the questionnaire. There are 28 citizens of Croatia, 17 of Kosovo, 12 of North Macedonia, 11 of Albania, and three of Slovenia. 42 people who filled out the "Vijesti" questionnaire have some other citizenship.

According to the Law, a Montenegrin citizen who on June 3, 2006 also had the citizenship of another country has the right to retain Montenegrin citizenship. A Montenegrin citizen who acquired another citizenship after that date "may retain Montenegrin citizenship as well, until the signing of a bilateral agreement with the country whose citizenship he acquired, but no longer than one year from the date of adoption of the Constitution of Montenegro".

CEGAS said that these attitudes "show even the lay public how discriminatory they are in terms of citizens' right to citizenship".

"The decision of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, which was passed on February 14, 2014, establishes that the provisions of Article 39 of the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship are not in accordance with the Constitution," they added.

CEGAS points to Article 8 of the Constitution, according to which "any direct or indirect discrimination, on any basis, is prohibited".

"Regulations and the introduction of special measures aimed at creating conditions for achieving national, gender and overall equality and protection of persons who are in an unequal position on any basis will not be considered discrimination. Special measures can be applied only until the goals for which they were taken are achieved," the article reads.

"It is clear that the adoption of Article 39, paragraphs 2 and 3 discriminates against citizens who are denied the right to dual citizenship, compared to the category of persons who are allowed to retain Montenegrin citizenship and citizenship of another country under favorable conditions, which is inconsistent with the provisions Articles 8, 12 and 147 of the Constitution of Montenegro", CEGAS states.

CONTROVERSIAL DECISION AND 60.000 POTENTIAL CITIZENS

Attorney Miloš Vukčević he recently said that a total of about 60.000 people can apply for and receive Montenegrin citizenship in the near future according to the disputed Decision.

Expert on status issues of foreigners and migrants and former official of the MUP Bojan Bulgarian he recently said that up to 5.000 citizens could apply for Montenegrin citizenship in the coming year.

According to CEGAS data, 39.358 people could acquire Montenegrin citizenship in the next ten years. These are persons who have a permanent residence permit and persons with temporary residence based on family reunification, autonomous residence, use and disposal of real estate, and persons with temporary residence for the purpose of work...

Research by CEGAS through requests for free access to information (FIA) shows that by shortening continuous residence from 15 to ten years, citizenship of Montenegro can be acquired by 15.578 persons after five years of permanent residence. They can acquire that right in one to ten years from now.

"We arrived at this number when we collected the number of potential candidates for obtaining Montenegrin citizenship by admission and on the basis of temporary residence. On the basis of family reunification, the number of those persons is 9.816, on the basis of autonomous residence 110, on the basis of the use and disposal of the right to immovable property owned in Montenegro by 1.866 persons," said the NGO.

In addition to the total number, there are 3.786 persons who have temporary residence for the purpose of work in the category of permits for temporary residence and work for the executive director and company...

"When speculating about other categories of temporary residence and temporary residence for the purpose of work, persons who fall into that category cannot be considered potential candidates for obtaining Montenegrin citizenship due to legal exclusion. Although the Law actually does not exclude persons who are on temporary residence for the purpose of education, specialization, professional training, scientific and research work, medical treatment, humanitarian reasons, performing religious services, volunteer work... there is little chance that these persons will stay in Montenegro according to this basis for more than 10 years continuously", are the opinions of CEGAS.

They also add that temporary residence for the purpose of work when issuing a permit for the employment of foreigners, seasonal employment, provision of contracted services, as well as the movement of persons within a foreign business entity, cannot last continuously from half a year to two years.

Of the 23.780 persons with permanent residence, depending on how many years of permanent residence they already have, it can be expected that in the next five years they will also be applicants for Montenegrin citizenship, CEGAS said.

"According to the data we received from the MUP, Montenegro has slightly more than 760.000 citizens, while the registered residence in Montenegro is about 640.000. This indicates that as many as 120 thousand citizens or a fifth of the Montenegrin population do not have registered residence in Montenegro. Does, among other things, the potential right to citizenship of 15.578 people truly cause us fear, because of which we must not encroach on the legal regulation of citizenship, residence and residence, or does the possibility of registering the residence of these 120 thousand cause us fear", is the question that is sent to the authorities from that NGO.

WITHOUT A PASSPORT THERE IS NO SIM CARD

The fact that she does not have the right to vote in Montenegro, the country where she has lived for almost three decades, is not the only thing that makes her feel like a second-class citizen.

"Although when talking about our status, someone would say that we have more or less all the rights as citizens of Montenegro, however, in some of the most banal examples, I saw that this is not the case - buying a SIM card, opening a bank account... and that is changeable, sometimes it can, sometimes not. It was interesting to me when the lady at the bank asked me for my passport so that I could turn off the option of receiving SMS messages about the inflow of money. All these situations are banal and funny, but when they happen more often, they become frustrating, they make you feel unequal, like a second-class citizen. On another matter, speaking of more serious old people, foreigners can enroll in the university but only if they finance themselves, there is no option for the budget, the border crossing of the countries of the region (Serbia, BiH, Albania...) which is allowed to citizens of Montenegro with an ID card, they can I cross only with a passport," she says.

She says she never applied for Montenegrin citizenship.

"I never wanted to risk so much, knowing the attitude of the previous government, and maybe, or rather very likely, become stateless, because in order to apply I have to give up this citizenship that I already have," she adds.

After the entry into force of the latest Decision, the regional units of the MUP received 21 requests for admission to Montenegrin citizenship from February 60 and the following two days. This, as "Vijesti" recently announced, is three times more than in the first part of February, when the old Decision on the conditions for acquiring Montenegrin citizenship was valid, when, among other things, 10 years of permanent residence in the country was required. During January, a total of 74 requests were recorded.

Citizenship by admission was acquired by 25.630 persons in a decade and a half

From 2006 to 2021, a decision on permanent residence was adopted for 23.780 persons. The largest number of requests was adopted in 2011, when 5.356 decisions on permanent residence were made.

"This number resulted on the basis of the first Decision on the criteria for determining the conditions for the acquisition of Montenegrin citizenship by admission, and it refers to the basis of residence and residence according to the Law on Residence and Residence with an emphasis on persons with the status of refugees and displaced persons," explains Marija Popović Kalezić. .

Of the 23.780 persons for whom a decision on permanent residence was adopted, depending on how many years of permanent residence they already count, it can be expected that in the next five years they will also be applicants for obtaining Montenegrin citizenship, CEGAS said.

According to the data obtained by that NGO on the basis of the Law on SPI, from the beginning of June 2006 to May 24, 2021, 25.630 persons acquired Montenegrin citizenship by admission. In the same period, 3.853 persons lost their Montenegrin citizenship by request, i.e. dismissal, and by force of law - 3.292 by request, and 561 by force of law.