Corruption at the Serbian Border Police

The main goal of this study is to assess corruption in the Serbian Border Police.Data has been collected on the basis of answers of the Border Police Directorate (UGP) and Internal Affairs Sector of the Police (SUKP) to a questionnaire which was made by the Centre for the Study of Democracy and modified by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy. In addition to this, a focus group was made up of representatives of these two organizational parts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MoI), and four interviews were conducted with police employees and representatives of civil society organizations.

The opinions of citizens, police employees and police trade union members on the level of corruption at the Serbian Border Police were analyzed in the first part of the text. After that, an assessment of corruption at the Serbian Border Police was presented. Then, anti-corruption mechanisms currently used by the Serbian Border Police Directorate were analyzed.

As the author points out, the topic of corruption in the border police is important because Serbia is a transit country which borders four EU member-states. The consequences are multifold. The goal of many criminal groups is to conquer the market of the European Union, whose economy is improving after several years of economic crisis. Serbia is a part of the Balkan route, which is well-known to criminal groups. Also, a common feature of a vast majority of migrants is that they illegally cross several international borders to reach Serbia and enter this country in the same way. In the process, they use the services of organized groups of smugglers who charge them a high price in order to help them to cross the border and to secure accommodation in transit countries. One also needs to add to this a strong intensity of international traffic in Serbia, particularly during the summer period, which is favorable for “petty” corruption. All this helps to strengthen corruption pressure on the Serbian Border Police.