Dacic: Belgium wants Serbia's visa liberalization reviewed
06. May 2011. | 07:15
Source: Tanjug
Serbia's Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said Wednesday that there is information that some EU members countries, including Belgium, have asked for Serbia's visa liberalization to be reviewed if the number of fake asylum seekers continues to grow.
Serbia's Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said Wednesday that there is information that some EU members countries, including Belgium, have asked for Serbia's visa liberalization to be reviewed if the number of fake asylum seekers continues to grow.
Dacic said that some countries, Belgium included, have sent an official request to EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom to open debate on a possible suspension of the visa liberalization.
After a meeting with ambassadors of the EU, the U.S., China and Russia, the interior minister said that last year the highest number of fake asylum seekers from Serbia was recorded in Sweden, Germany and Belgium, and in recent months Luxembourg, which he will visit Thursday at an urgent invitation to discuss the issue.
"Aware of the problem, the Serbian government is expressing readiness to undertake all measures independently and in cooperation with EU member countries with a view to efficiently solving the problem," he said. Dacic reiterated that the fake asylum seekers from Serbia are mostly Roma and Albanians, and that around 95 percent of their requests get turned down.
He also said there would be more severe punishments for those who abuse the visa-free regime with EU countries, not ruling out the possibility that their passports will be confiscated and they will be temporarily banned from leaving the country.
Dacic also announced he will meet with representatives of the Roma ethnic minority council and the local authorities in southern Serbia, where most of the Albanian illegal immigrants come from.
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