Serbia expels Croatian doctor married to Serb over security threat
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Arien Stojanovic Ivkovic, 31, a Croatian doctor who lives in Belgrade with her Serbian husband and a three-year-old daughter, was given one week's notice to leave the country last week and told she was a security threat.
She said a police officer called and said there was a problem with her residence.
"When I went to the police station I was given a piece of paper that said I was an unacceptable threat to the security of Serbia and its citizens. I was given one week to leave," she said.
"How can you pack up a life in a week?"
Stojanovic Ivkovic is one of about 20 Croatian citizens who have been ordered to leave Serbia in the past three months, according to Croatian embassy data. Dozens of others have been refused entry at the border.
Relations between Croatia and Serbia, which fought a bitter war in the 1990s, have been strained in recent months after a wave of anti-corruption protests, which Serbian pro-government media have accused Croatia's security service of backing.
Stojanovic Ivkovic said the only thing she can think of that may account for her being identified as a security threat after 12 years of living in Serbia was her support for the student-led protests, which included attending several rallies.
"However, we do not know if this is the real reason," she said. "We as a family we do not deserve this."
She has filed a complaint and hopes she will be allowed to stay with her family.
Serbia's Interior Ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
"We are extremely worried that in three days last week we had five cases of expulsion (of Croatian citizens)," Hidajet Biscevic, the Croatian ambassador to Serbia, said. (This story has been corrected to rectify the spelling of the doctor's first name to 'Arien' in paragraph 1)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
German defence minister: not considering sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine
BERLIN (Reuters) -German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday that Germany is not considering delivering Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine despite Kyiv's repeated requests. Although Germany is one of Ukraine's main military backers, Berlin has never supplied Taurus missiles, which have a range in excess of 300 miles (480 km). Answering a journalist's question during his fifth visit to Kyiv since the start of the war, Pistorius said, "Since you asked me whether we are considering this, my answer is no." In the same news conference, the minister said his country's military support for Ukraine had reached 7 billion euros ($8.12 billion) this year and a further 1.9 billion euros were pending parliamentary approval. ($1 = 0.8621 euros) (Writing by Friederike HeineEditing by Madeline Chambers)
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
US files lawsuit against New York for blocking immigration officials near court
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit challenging a New York state law that blocks immigration officials from arresting individuals at or near New York courthouses. "Specifically, the complaint challenges a law, called the Protect Our Courts Act, that purposefully shields dangerous aliens from being lawfully detained at or on their way to or from a courthouse and imposes criminal liability for violations of the shield," the Justice Department said in a statement. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said New York was employing policies similar to those used by California to prevent "illegal aliens from apprehension." "This latest lawsuit in a series of sanctuary city litigation underscores the Department of Justice's commitment to keeping Americans safe and aggressively enforcing the law," she said. Demonstrators once again took to the streets in major U.S. cities on Thursday to protest President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. A federal judge in San Francisco will hear arguments later in the day as part of California's lawsuit against Trump's deployment of U.S. troops in Los Angeles.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Australia to boost aerial surveillance of Pacific for illegal fishing fleets
By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia plans to significantly boost surveillance of Pacific Islands territorial waters, spending A$477 million ($310.72 million) on aerial patrols for illegal fishing fleets, tender documents viewed by Reuters show, as China takes steps towards sending its coast guard to the region. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will visit Fiji on Friday, the Fiji Times newspaper reported, after the government of Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka last week approved a maritime security agreement that will see Australia fund a patrol boat for Fiji. Australia will operate commercial aerial patrols to support Pacific Island countries monitoring exclusive economic zones which span millions of kilometres of ocean. Efforts to tackle illegal fishing also led to a new monitoring centre being opened in Fiji in April. Australia's defence department declined to comment on the aerial tender, and Pacific Minister Pat Conroy did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters reported last week that China's coast guard is taking further steps towards high seas boarding of fishing boats in the Pacific for the first time, risking tensions with Taiwanese fleets that also ply the region. The Chinese Coast Guard demonstrated the capabilities of one of its largest ships, used to enforce maritime law in the Taiwan Strait, to 10 Pacific Island ministers, including Fiji's, in China a fortnight ago. China has registered 26 coast guard vessels for Pacific Ocean patrols with the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, although it is yet to conduct an inspection, WCPFC officials said. China declined to comment. Australia has gifted two dozen patrol boats to Pacific Island nations, and operates navy and air force patrols for illegal fishing in the region several times a year. Sangaa Clark, chief executive of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, representing nine Pacific Island countries controlling the world's largest tuna fishery, said the group has not invited China to conduct coast guard patrols, and instead relied on Australian-funded surveillance and patrols by Australia, New Zealand, France and the United States. Pacific security expert Peter Connolly, a fellow at the University of New South Wales, said Chinese Coast Guard patrols in the region would "introduce geostrategic tensions to the policing of the Pacific's fisheries". "This is particularly likely because the two most common nationalities of illegal fishermen in the Pacific have been from the PRC and from Taiwan," he said, referring to the People's Republic of China. ($1 = 1.5352 Australian dollars)
