No Visa-Free Suspension for Serbia, Macedonia

EU interior and justice ministers, who met in Luxembourg on Thursday, did not discuss a temporary suspension of the visa-free regime for the Western Balkan countries over the number of asylum seekers coming from Serbia and Macedonia.

EU ministers concluded that the Western Balkans "has made some progress" in the implementation of visa liberalization with the EU, although there are still many asylum seekers from Serbia and Macedonia filing applications in EU countries.

The European Union lifted visa requirements on citizens of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro in December 2009, allowing them to travel to the EU without visas.

Since then, Serbia and Macedonia have received several complaints concerning the number asylum seekers, mainly ethnic Albanians and Roma, filing applications in Sweden, Belgium, Germany and other European countries.

While the EU has said that applicants from countries in the Western Balkans will be systematically rejected, as they do not meet the requirements to be granted asylum status, hopeful candidates have continued to head north.

The authorities in Macedonia and Serbia, meanwhile, have been under increasing pressure to stem the wave.

According to a recent UNHCR report, Serbia was the top country of origin for asylum seekers in 2010, sending more applicants to the industrialized world than both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Cecilia Malmstrom, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs, said on Thursday that most "false asylum seekers" coming from Macedonia and Serbia live in very difficult circumstances.

Malmstrom added that the Commission has presented to ministers a mechanism for the immediate revocation of the visa-free regime for a period of six to nine months if the inflow of false asylum seekers and illegal immigrants from the Western Balkans into the "Schengen-zone countries increases by more than 50 per cent in a six month period.

A semi-annual report of the EC on the free visa regime for Western Balkans that was presented on Thursday says that "Serbian authorities have taken numerous measures" to thwart unfounded claims for asylum in some EU countries, and urgent actions are taken on a daily basis for the return of persons illegally residing in the EU.