Citizens often return with unfinished business: Poor premises and a lack of counters create queues in front of the Ministry of Interior in Tivat

Citizens of Tivat and numerous foreign citizens who live or work in that city and who need any service from the Branch for Administrative Affairs, Citizenship and Foreigners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Montenegro in Tivat, have been facing problems in exercising their rights for months.

Huge lines of people waiting to issue or collect personal documents, collect driving licenses, biometrics or some other administrative-legal action that they must complete with the Montenegrin Ministry of Internal Affairs, are a daily sight on the corner of Njegoševa and Palih boraca Streets in the center of Tivat, where the small and inadequate premises of the local Branch for Administrative Affairs, Citizenship and Foreigners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are located.

"It happens that people come even before six in the morning, a few hours before the officials even open the premises and start working, just to "catch the line" and have the opportunity to finally finish some urgent administrative work they have with this state body. Nervousness, arguments, pushing through the line, waiting in the middle of the street in the rain, wind or cold and the extremely slow procedure, because most often out of three available, only one counter for issuing personal documents and the needs of foreigners is working, is something that has been going on in front of the Tivat Branch for months and absolutely no one in charge is doing anything to improve such an unacceptable situation," a woman from Tivat who works at an agency that provides assistance to foreigners in administrative and legal matters in Boka Kotorska told "Vijesti".

Due to the nature of her work and the needs of her clients, she is in a long line almost every day in front of the Tivat Branch, and she says she has witnessed situations where some of her acquaintances waited in vain for hours to finish their work, because by the time they reached the end of the line in front of the Branch, the working hours of the MUP officers for that day would already be over.

The fact that Montenegrin citizens who are resolving their administrative situations formally have priority over foreigners who are waiting to register for residence, work permits, etc., and the fact that at the beginning of working hours and at the end of breaks, one of the Branch employees usually goes outside and calls out people who are, for example, waiting to register a newborn baby to get in before the queue, does not solve the problem. Likewise, all the efforts of the limited number of employees in the Branch to help each other in such a way that the employee at the traffic license and vehicle registration counter often comes to the aid of his overburdened colleague at the ID counter cannot systematically solve this situation, which absolutely everyone is dissatisfied with.

The catastrophic state of affairs with the way the Ministry of Interior's Branch for Administrative Affairs, Citizenship and Foreigners in Tivat (is not) working is a frequent subject of comments and complaints from citizens on social networks because citizens simply cannot understand that the Ministry of Interior is unable to provide them with the efficient and fast administrative services that citizens pay to that body, paying various administrative fees for the documents they receive at that Branch.

Despite the promise that they would definitely do so, even after more than twenty days, "Vijesti" has not received answers from the Ministry of Interior to a set of questions that the department headed by the minister Danilo Šaranović Among other things, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was asked whether this state body was even aware of the unacceptably poor condition and the daily huge crowds and lines that stretch on the street for dozens of meters from the entrance to the Branch, and to explain what caused this.

There was no response as to how many employees the Branch currently has and how many counters are constantly available to citizens for their administrative needs. Šaranović's office did not respond to "Vijesti"'s request to clarify how the work of the Branch is organized for citizens of Montenegro - especially those who come only to collect traffic licenses/registration plates for their vehicles, and not personal documents or to perform biometrics, given the large number of foreign citizens who create huge crowds and queues every day.

Tivat is, according to official data, the most cosmopolitan area in Montenegro, as members of more than 40 nations from all over the world permanently or temporarily reside in this municipality, and a large number of foreign citizens work for large employers such as "Luštica Development" or "Porto Montenegro", all of which creates additional administrative pressure on the Tivat Branch.

The Ministry of Interior completely ignored the question of what the ministry has done or intends to do to improve the poor situation and for citizens to finally receive timely and efficient administrative services.