EU Warns Balkan States Over Migrants

EU justice and interior ministers on Monday decided to boost the border safety supervision for these countries, to demand stricter checks of their passports, and to increase the exchange of intelligence, Deutsche Welle's Macedonian service reported.

"We wish to warn these countries about the consequences of the misuse of visa liberalisation," Belgian Minister for Migration Melkior Vatle told media.

The move comes after several EU countries in the past year reported drastic increases in the number of migrants from the three states, most of whom applied for asylum but were rejected.

The EC has repeatedly stressed that visa liberalisation does not mean that economic migrants will be granted a prolonged stay, and that the regime only allows tourist travel.

The warnings do not appear to have significantly slowed the number of migrants. Sweden's National Migration Board told Balkan Insight in October that it had registered 5,300 asylum seekers from Serbia in 2010. The number of Serbian nationals, mostly Roma families, who applied for asylum in 2009 stood at 570, according to the Board's figures.

In the wake of the rising number of asylum seekers, the ministers tasked the European Commission to publish reports on visa liberalisation every six months.

If the influx continues, the EC can propose the suspension of the visa liberalisation regime in accordance with the Lisbon treaty.

The stricter rules will also apply for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania, whose citizens were granted visa free travel at Monday’s session in Brussels. Kosovo is the only country in the region that has not been granted visa free travel.