Macedonia Company Targets Asylum Seekers

The company which put up the posters, “Delta Tours”, explained to media that they provide only the transport for persons wishing to register as asylum seekers in Austria, Germany and France, and that they have nothing to do with what their customers do after they arrive in the EU countries.

“We do not strictly work with asylum seekers, we simply organise the transport and it is up to the passengers to decide if they want to apply for asylum. You lose nothing. Even if you get rejected, they give you money and they pay for your airline ticket back,” agency representatives told local daily Dnevnik.

The probe comes after earlier this month Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland reported that they had registered drastically increased numbers of asylum seekers from Macedonia and Serbia since the start of the visa liberalisation for the countries at the end of last year. They applied for asylum citing economic difficulties, officials said, noting that this did not merit asylum status.

The issue was then addressed by both the EU countries and the two Balkan states. Some of the asylum seekers have been sent back and the Macedonian and Serbian authorities launched a media campaign to tell people not to go to Western Europe to request asylum.

Macedonian daily Utrinksi reported that a group of Macedonian asylum seekers in Sweden were sent back yesterday, and the Swedish embassy issued a statement saying that the country would continue to return  the asylum seekers. The statement added that visa liberalisation should not be abused, but noted that Sweden was pleased with Macedonian efforts to tackle the problem.

Several tourist agencies were probed in relation to the mass departures. They were suspected of luring  uninformed people with false claims that they would be quickly granted asylum in the EU countries.

Police spokesman Ivo Kotevski told media that the police would investigate the latest case, adding that if they found indications of criminal activities or fraud they would act accordingly.

“In order to act we need someone to complain that he has been deceived. If the agency only arranges the transport there is no basis for criminal charges,” he noted.

Kotevski urged people not to fall victim to these “marketing tricks” and reminded Macedonians that they are not eligible for asylum in European Union countries.