High number of asylum seekers from Serbia

“In the letter they ask to discuss at the next Council. The third report that the Commission has been presenting recently on the situation, the evaluation of the situation in the area and in the member states, they also ask to agree as soon as possible the safeguard clause that would allow in the future to introduce visa in cases of serious problems and serious deficiencies. At this state there is no request or at least the Commission has not received any specific request to reintroduce visa for those countries”, declared Michele Cercone, Spokesperson of the Commissioner for the Interior Affairs.

Fortunately, at least for the moment, the punishing mechanism is still in the discussion phase between the EU Parliament and Council, but the six Ministers are requesting its approval within this year, which leaves only a few months to improve the situation of the five Balkan member countries that benefit from the visa liberalization.

“From our point of view, we are extremely worried, because the situation is more and more worrying. What Commissioner Malstrom said several times when talking about visa liberalization in Balkans, is that this is a great achievement, a great freedom, but it comes with huge responsibilities. And it is more than the time now for the countries, their authorities and their citizens to prove they can handle this huge responsibility”, Cercone declared.

The Commission clarifies that the situation is concerning not only for some, but for all countries of the region. This is illustrated with the example of one of the member countries, Belgium, which says that the Albanian asylum seekers are more than even in Albania, while Macedonia is not anymore in the “top ten” list for 2012.

According to the General Belgian Police District, Albania is ranked eighth this year, with 470 requests until the end of September, with Kosovo ranking first, the only country that is still isolated by the visa regime.

Daçiç: We will pay expenses of asylum seekers

The Serbian Prime Minister, Ivica Dacic, reacted by saying that Serbia will pay the expenses of 10.000 Serbian asylum seekers found in different European countries, which is a much smaller damage than the return of the visa regime.

Fayon: BE about to return the visa regime

The EU Parliament rapporteur for the visa liberalization, Tanya Fayon, declared that the EU member countries will soon decide if they will return the visa regime for Serbia and Macedonia.

Fayon said that the EU countries do not desire the visa reestablishment, but to block the flux of fake asylum seekers.

According to her, this mechanism will be proposed on the meeting of October 25th of the EU Ministers by request of the countries that have the higher number of asylum seekers.

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