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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Amendments to Criminal Code to stall increase in false asylum seekers

Belgrade, 10 May 2011

Deputy Prime Minister for European integration Bozidar Djelic stated today that amendments to the Criminal Code will soon be proposed because of an increased number of false asylum seekers from Serbia in the EU.

Author: Fonet

Speaking at an annual conference “Reforms: Political Will and/or Administrative Capacity”, held on the occasion of Europe Day, Djelic stressed that Serbia has ratified the Pan-European Convention which recognises illegal migrations as a criminal act, therefore these amendments will be grounded in this document.

He explained that the announced amendments will help to better recognise any instance of this criminal act and help police to take in persons involved in this activity.

A series of other measures will also be initiated to suppress the number of false asylum seekers from Serbia. We will launch a broad media campaign to explain that EU states which used to provide financial compensation will no longer do so, he observed.

We will talk with our European partners about receiving accurate information on those who abuse the visa-free regime from countries in the Schengen space, Djelic added.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the number of false asylum seekers in certain EU countries, such as Sweden, has been reduced.

Bearing in mind the fact that false asylum seekers are mostly Roma and Albanians, Djelic stressed that Serbia will make no ethnicity-based differences in the treatment of its citizens who jeopardise the visa-free regime.

One of the measures to stall false asylum seekers is a possibility to withdraw the right to biometric passport for these persons and to temporarily suspend their right to travel to EU countries, Djelic concluded.

Director of the EU Integration Office Milica Delevic said that it is most important to cooperate with European partners so that only those who abuse the visa-free regime are marked, without worsening the position of all minority groups.

She explained that the aim of the information campaign in Serbia and EU member states is that seeking asylum is one thing and resolution of economic problems in the country something else.