Preliminary remarks; (Read full CPT report)
39. For the first time, the CPT’s delegation visited Vranidoll Detention Centre for Foreigners, which is the only establishment of this type in Kosovo*. The Centre was opened in 2015 and it is managed by the Department of Citizenship, Asylum and Migration (DCAM) of the Ministry of the Interior. With an official capacity of 75 places, it comprised two accommodation units, one for single men and one for single women and families. In recent years, the actual number of foreign nationals has usually been very low.24 At the time of the visit, it was accommodating one Albanian family (parents with their eight-year-old child) that had arrived at the Centre three weeks earlier.
40. According to the Law on Foreigners,25 foreign nationals may be detained by order of
the DCAM for up to six months. Under certain circumstances, the detention period may be extended
to a maximum period of twelve months. According to the Law on Asylum,26 asylum-seekers may be
detained if the DCAM, on the basis of an individual assessment, considers it is necessary and other
less coercive alternatives cannot be applied effectively. The delegation was informed that foreign nationals were usually detained in the Centre for very short periods (on average, three to five days). That said, there had been some cases in while foreign nationals had been held in the Centre for more than six months and, exceptionally, for up toone year.
41. The CPT wishes to stress that every effort should be made to avoid resorting to the deprivation
of liberty of an irregular migrant who is a child. In this regard, the Committee notes that unaccompanied minors may in principle be detained in the Centre, although the Law on Foreigners stipulates that unaccompanied minors subject to a detention order may exceptionally be held in
a social welfare centre.27 According to the information provided to the delegation, no unaccompanied
minors have thus far been held in the Centre. The Committee welcomes this state of affairs and
encourages the relevant authorities to take the necessary steps to ensure that, in the future
unaccompanied minors will not be detained in the Centre but rather be accommodated in a
social welfare institution.
42. The CPT understands that, in recent years, only a few families with children have been held
in the Centre and usually only for short periods. It trusts that the relevant authorities will continue
to avoid placing parents with children in the Centre and ensure that when, in an exceptional case, minors are held there with their parents, their stay is limited to the shortest possible period
of time.
