25.5.2011 by ctstmaser.

Source: Tanjug

HORGOŠ — PM Mirko Cvetković said Wednesday that the government measures meant to bring down the number of fake asylum seekers were “good”.

Mirko Cvetković (Beta, file)

However, noted the prime minister, “it is still too early to tell how effective they are, even though early data shows the numbers are going down”.

Cvetković spoke to reporters during a ceremony at the Horgoš border crossing in the north of the country, which was presented with the latest generation mobile scanner.

“To be sure, we need to see a trend and see if the reduction is seasonal or because people have been discouraged from going to the EU,” Cvetković said and stressed that the government will penalize fake asylum seekers.

The Serbian government recently passed a series of short-term and long-term measures in an effort to curb the number of asylum seekers from Serbia in the EU.

Cvetković also addressed recent statements coming from one of his deputies in favor of a partition of Kosovo.

The government has not considered such a move, he told reporters.

Cvetković did not wish to directly react to the ideas voiced by Ivica Dačić, saying that he “cannot comment the statements of politicians regarding a topic which has not been discussed at a government’s session”.

Serbian asylum seekers jeopardising visa liberalisation

Serbian asylum seekers jeopardising visa liberalisation

23/05/2011

Serbia is working to stem the flow of bogus asylum seekers, who threaten Schengen access.

By Biljana Pekusic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade – 23/05/11

Asylum seekers board a bus out of Brussels for repatriation to Serbia and Macedonia in March 2010.

Due to the torrent of Serbians seeking asylum in EU member countries, Brussels has warned Belgrade that the future of visa-free travel in the Schengen area is at risk.
Visa requirements were lifted for citizens of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro in December 2009. Over the course of the following 12 months, 17,000 people from Serbia requested asylum in the EU, mostly in Sweden, Belgium and Germany.
They weren’t fleeing political persecution, rather, they were poor people who believe that in the richer Western European countries, life would be eased by government subsidies. About 95% are Gypsies, the rest mostly members of the Albanian minority in Presevo and Bujanovac in southern Serbia.
And in their zeal to move, many have become targets of corruption and fraud.
“My friend in Nis paid 1,500 euros to a police officer to get a passport, because he had no ID card, nor a permanent home address. He wanted to go to Switzerland because he cannot find a job,” Cakan Dujic, a member of the Gypsy community, tells SETimes. “He never received the passport. He must now pay back the debt because the money was borrowed, and the police officer pretends not to know him.”
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http://setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2011/05/23/feature-03

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