The Austrian Erste Foundation announced today that the detention and expulsion of participants in the NGO Academy workshop it organized in Belgrade is very concerning, and that there is no information as to why the Serbian authorities decided to take this step.
In a statement published on the LinkedIn platform, the Erste Foundation stated that the renowned Academy for Non-Governmental Organizations held a workshop in Belgrade on January 20th and 21st, organized by its team from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
"The workshop was attended by 22 people from 12 countries. Several workshop participants were taken to the police station in Belgrade in the late evening hours of January 21, questioned by the competent authorities, and then banned from entering the country," the statement said.
The Erste Foundation states that it is currently aware that 13 participants from eight countries were treated in this way and adds that neither anyone from its ranks nor the team from the Vienna University of Economics and Business has been informed why this happened.
"This incident is extremely concerning. Together with our partner, the Academy for Non-Governmental Organizations, we continue to closely monitor the situation. On January 23, the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade protested the treatment of the participants of this event and their expulsion from Serbia. We are very sorry that the workshop participants had to go through this experience. We reaffirm our continued commitment to civil society in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe," the statement reads.
The NGO Academy is a capacity-building program that has existed since 2013, and several similar workshops have previously been held in Belgrade, according to the Erste Foundation.
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Registration for this week's workshop "Earned Income Strategies for Mission-Driven Organizations" was open from the end of August 2024 as part of the Academy Network for NGOs, which brings together 580 associations, it added.
The NGO Academy is a joint project of the Erste Foundation and the Center for Nonprofit Organizations and Social Entrepreneurship of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, launched with the aim of strengthening the civil society sector in Central and Eastern Europe by providing educational opportunities through capacity building, it says.
The media previously reported that among the detained and expelled workshop participants were citizens of nine countries - Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Albania, Moldova, Romania, Austria and the Czech Republic.
Regarding the expulsion of their nationals, workshop participants, Croatia sent a note of protest to Serbia, Albania expressed serious concern, stating that such moves were not in line with good neighborly relations, while Romania requested an explanation of the reasons for such action.
Reacting to accusations by state officials and politicians in Croatia against Serbian authorities for expelling five Croatian citizens, the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday that Zagreb should tell its public what these individuals "really did in Serbia."
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