Within the EU/Council of Europe Joint Programme Roma Integration Phase III, under a Grant for providing direct support to Roma and Egyptians without documents in need of civil registration in Montenegro, substantial progress has been made in addressing documentation gaps and supporting individuals at risk of statelessness, particularly within Roma and Egyptian communities.

Through extensive fieldwork and direct community outreach, 21 children were successfully registered in the birth registry and subsequently obtained legal foreigner residency status in Montenegro. A total of 33 children received passports — 27 issued by Kosovo* and 3 issued by Serbia — while 18 adults also obtained legal foreigner residency. In parallel, 18 Kosovo ID cards and 16 Kosovo passports were issued, along with two Serbian passports, enabling access to education, healthcare, and social protection. More than 20 emergency travel documents were arranged through embassies to facilitate cross-border documentation procedures, and two individuals were granted Montenegrin citizenship.

The project also reinforced cooperation with institutional and international stakeholders, helping to clarify procedural obstacles and increase awareness of systemic barriers affecting Roma and Egyptian communities. The findings highlight structural gaps related to administrative delays, discriminatory practices, lack of procedural safeguards, and unresolved cross-border citizenship issues, underscoring the need for sustained institutional engagement and alignment with international statelessness standards.

More than 180 direct meetings with community members were conducted, resulting in 109 cases successfully resolved and significantly improving access to basic rights and services for affected families. While the project demonstrated that targeted outreach, legal assistance, and inter-institutional coordination can lead to concrete results, the remaining unresolved cases illustrate that civil registration and statelessness in Montenegro remain complex, multi-dimensional issues that cannot be addressed through individual interventions alone. Continued cooperation between national and local institutions, international partners, and community actors will therefore be essential to ensure that stateless persons and those at risk are able to obtain documentation, exercise their rights, and avoid passing statelessness to the next generation.

The intervention was implemented in partnership with the NGO Phiren Amenca from Montenegro from June 2024 to June 2025.