More than three decades have passed since the Serbian authorities invented a monstrous plan to deal with Serbian citizens of Croatian nationality living in Serbia. All they came up with at that time was expulsion. Back then, it was enough that they were Croats.
Progressives are now guided by a similar logic, so the Croatian citizen Arien Stojanović Ivković, who resides in Belgrade, was expelled from the country, although she lived peacefully in Serbia for 12 years, studied here, got married and had a child. Now the criterion was not only that she was Croatian, but that she dared to appear at student protests as such. However, Aleksandar Vučić is an upgraded version of Vojislav Šešelj.
An expelled young doctor, designated as a high-risk factor in security, works in an insurance company to assess damages caused by physical injuries. Her life boils down to, as she told N1, work, kindergarten, child, family and going to some - student protest.
What happened
Arien Stojanović Ivković was banned from entering Serbia for one year.
On April 8, she was called by an inspector from the Administration for Foreigners and asked to come to the police premises, assuring her that everything is fine with her stay, reports N1. Arien says that several inspectors waited for her at the police station. She was handed a decision canceling the previously approved temporary stay and prohibiting her from entering Serbia.
She adds that the work visa she had for work in Serbia also ceased to be valid as a result.
The explanation succinctly states that "the body responsible for the protection of the security of the Republic of Serbia submitted an assessment that the stay of Croatian citizen Ivković Stojanović Arien represents an unacceptable security risk."
A doctor who works in an insurance company to assess damages caused by physical injuries, says that her life boils down to work, kindergarten, child, family and going to some major student protest - if she can make it. And precisely in that protest, she sees a possible reason for her expulsion.
She says that she supported the students, their demands and protests not only on the street, but also on social networks, and that on Instagram, as a doctor, she condemned Vučić's entry into the intensive care unit and touching the injured in the fire in Kočani without gloves.
Destruction of the family
The Serbian police gave Arien seven days to leave the country and 15 days to file an appeal, with the provision that the appeal does not delay the execution of the decision.
"I might lose my job, I might have to take the child with me, which means he won't see his father, go to kindergarten," states Arien.
Due to the ban on entering the country, he will not be able to bring the child, who is a dual citizen of Java, to visit his family in Serbia, but contacts will depend solely on their ability to come to Croatia.
Her husband said on social networks that the "destruction of the family" was about to happen.
She turned to the Croatian Embassy in Belgrade for help, and she also announced an appeal against the decision of the Serbian security services.
As N1 unofficially learns, Arien is not an isolated case and several Croatian citizens were banned from entering Serbia instead of a temporary residence permit.
The students in the blockade of the University of Novi Sad strongly condemned the unjustified expulsion of foreign citizens Arien Stojanović Ivković, as well as the Italian pianist David Martel from Serbia, because of their support for the student protest.
Collective expulsion
This method threatens to become a practice.
Thus, the participants of the workshops of the organization "Erste Stiftung" expelled from Serbia in January 2025, with the explanation that they threaten the security of the state and citizens. In the decision that was issued to them as a reason for deportation, the "protection of the security of the Republic of Serbia and its citizens" was stated.
Art historian Ana Kovačić from Zagreb, who represented the "What, how & for whom/VHV" curatorial collective at the workshops, said that the workshops lasted two days, and about 15 people from Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, BiH and North Macedonia participated.
After the workshops, the participants went for a drink and returned to the hotel around 23.30:XNUMX p.m.
"We were greeted in the hall by men in plainclothes who approached us, showed us their identification cards for a moment and said that they were police officers for foreigners and that we would have to go with them to the station. They did not answer any of our questions, they said that they were not required to do so. We did not understand anything, they took our documents and ordered us to wait in the hall," Kovačić said then.
So when the expulsion of European Union citizens without any explanation or reason went through reactions from Brussels, why not go further.
All this was accompanied by theories, spread by Vučić and his government employees through the regime media, about the "blockade cookbook" and how the Croatian secret service, which is the contractor of dirty work on the order of the German intelligence service BND, is behind the student protests.
Just as the expulsion of certain Russians from Serbia who dared to speak publicly against Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine was a warning to the members of the large Russian community in the country to keep their mouths shut, so the expulsion of Arien Stojanović Ivković is a signal to all foreigners in Serbia that they can live and work here, but keep their heads down.
If the European Union does not act, it can be expected that there will be more. However, Aleksandar Vučić is Vojislav Šešelj's best student.
