Beyond the Deed: New Measures Proposed to End “Vicious Cycle” of Exclusion for Roma in Montenegro
17 April 2026
For years, many families in Montenegro's Romani, Ashkali, and Balkan Egyptian communities have been trapped in a bureaucratic loop preventing them from accessing basic public services. The logic is circular and cruel: you cannot get an ID card without proof of residence, but you cannot get proof of residence because you live in informal settlements where no deeds to housing tenure exist. Without an ID, you cannot access healthcare, enrol children in school, or claim social benefits.
Now, after years of advocacy and a formal finding by the country's Ombudsman, the government says it is finally ready to change the rules. On 8th April 2026, the Ministry of Internal Affairs delivered a formal implementation report to the Office of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms (the Ombudsman). This document serves as the state's official response to findings of the Ombudsman (delivered in December 2025), which concluded that Montenegro's strict residency and birth registration requirements constituted indirect discrimination against the Roma, Ashkali, and Balkan Egyptian population. The watchdog described the situation not as a series of isolated administrative errors, but as a "vicious cycle" of legal invisibility deliberately maintained by rigid bureaucratic standards.
The proposed changes
The Ministry's proposed plan hinges on two significant shifts in how the state interacts with its most marginalised citizens. The first addresses the impossible barrier of proof of residence. Under current regulations, applicants must produce property deeds or notarized leases to register their address. For families living in informal communities that are not legalised – often on the outskirts of cities like Podgorica, Nikšić, or Berane – these documents are non-existent. They may have lived in their home for twenty years, but without a title deed, the state refuses to acknowledge their presence.
The Ministry’s report states that a new Rulebook (Pravilnik) is currently being drafted under the updated Law on Foreigners. This regulation aims to explicitly define "alternative documentation" for proving residence. The goal is to move beyond the rigid requirement of property ownership and accept other forms of evidence, such as statements from local community leaders, utility bills in a neighbour’s name, or declarations from social workers. However, the report stops short of listing exactly what will be accepted, leaving Roma Rights activists to wonder if the new criteria will be practical or merely another hurdle disguised as reform.
The second pillar of the reform targets the next generation. The Ministry announced a collaboration with the Ministry of Health to implement a digital birth notification system. Historically, registering a birth required parents to navigate a maze of paperwork, often impossible if they lacked ID themselves. This created a situation where children were born into legal limbo, inheriting the statelessness of their parents. The new digital system would allow healthcare institutions to report births directly to the civil registers. In theory, this decouples a child's right to an identity from their parents' legal status, ensuring that a baby born in a hospital is registered regardless of whether their mother has a passport.
The scale of the exclusion these reforms aim to fix is staggering. The Ministry's own data, cited in the report, reveals a grim reality: since 2009, Montenegro has processed over 15,000 requests for permanent or temporary stay. Yet, more than 2,400 of these requests were rejected. The primary reason given was "incomplete" documentation. While the Ministry frames this as a neutral administrative standard, the ERRC argues that the requirement for specific types of paperwork is inherently biased against a population systematically excluded from the formal housing market.
This pattern was laid bare in the case of the “Berane group”, a cluster of families who remained in legal uncertainty for years despite repeated attempts to regularise their status. A finding from the Ombudsman (Opinion 440/22) highlighted how these families were caught in a system designed to fail them. The current reforms are being framed as a necessary step for Montenegro to comply with the Skopje Process, a regional initiative aimed at resolving statelessness, and to meet international standards on human rights.
The devil in the detail
However, a healthy note of scepticism is warranted and activists from the ERRC warn caution at celebrating the reforms too soon. "The government has acknowledged the problem. They have admitted the system is broken. But admitting it and fixing it are two different things," said the ERRC’s Regional Human Rights Monitor, Mustafa Asanovski. The concern is that the new Rulebook might define alternative documentation so narrowly that it remains inaccessible to the most vulnerable. For instance, if the state accepts a letter from a community leader, but that leader is not recognised by the municipality, the application might fail. If the digital birth system requires a hospital to have internet access and trained staff, rural facilities might be left behind.
“While these commitments are promising, our focus now shifts to monitoring the Draft Law and the content of the new Rulebook to ensure the proposed "alternative documentation" is truly accessible to the most vulnerable. We will also monitor the rollout of the digital registration system to ensure no child remains ‘legally invisible’ regardless of their parents' status” said Asanovski.
Activists are also watching the legislative timeline closely. The Ministry has promised to introduce a Draft Law on Amendments in the coming months which could be a critical juncture. If the law is watered down during parliamentary debate, or if the implementation is delayed indefinitely, the cycle will continue. The political context adds another layer of complexity. Montenegro, like much of the Balkans, is navigating a turbulent political landscape where anti-Roma sentiment is high. In such an environment, the willingness of the state to grant rights to a marginalised group is often tested by the intensity of public backlash.
For the families waiting for access to ID’s and public services, the stakes are personal and immediate. A parent cannot take their sick child to the doctor without an ID. They cannot find work without a tax number. A teenager cannot graduate without a birth certificate. The bureaucratic loop is not an abstract legal concept; it is a daily reality of deprivation.
As the legislative process begins, activists across the region will be watching. Montenegro has a chance to set a precedent for the Balkans, showing that statelessness can be dismantled through pragmatic, inclusive policy. But for the Roma, Ashkali, and Balkan Egyptian communities, the promise of reform is only as good as its execution. Until they hold an ID card in their hand, the “vicious cycle” remains unbroken.
