PM: Government will solve false asylum seekers issue

Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said Friday that the government was actively working to prevent false asylum seekers from entering the EU member states. “The government commission is actively working to resolve the issue through two channels,” he said. PM: Government will solve false asylum seekers issue “The first is the prosecution of persons who violated the law and regulations and who issued documents without verification,” the PM explained. “The second channel is to continue to inform the public that the problem of false asylum seekers is everyone's problem and that false asylum seekers should be discouraged,” he told reporters after meeting with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk. Cvetkovic also said that the problem was more pronounced in Serbia than in other countries that have received visa liberalization because it had occurred during the global economic crisis and because false asylum seekers wanted to solve their economic, not political problems. He said that this was a sensitive issue because, on the one hand, it was a human rights issue when someone's passport was taken away, and on the other there was the problem of how to prevent abuse. Tusk said that Serbia should show all skeptics in the EU that it is doing everything to solve the problem of asylum seekers, and that the task of Poland is to explain to everyone in Europe that Serbia is doing that. He recalled that the prevailing atmosphere in Europe regarding immigrants, whether they come legally or illegally, was more unfavorable than ever in the past. Mirko Cvetkovic (Tanjug, file)

PM: Government will solve false asylum seekers issue

“The first is the prosecution of persons who violated the law and regulations and who issued documents without verification,” the PM explained.

“The second channel is to continue to inform the public that the problem of false asylum seekers is everyone's problem and that false asylum seekers should be discouraged,” he told reporters after meeting with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk.

Cvetković also said that the problem was more pronounced in Serbia than in other countries that have received visa liberalization because it had occurred during the global economic crisis and because false asylum seekers wanted to solve their economic, not political problems.

He said that this was a sensitive issue because, on the one hand, it was a human rights issue when someone's passport was taken away, and on the other there was the problem of how to prevent abuse.

Tusk said that Serbia should show all skeptics in the EU that it is doing everything to solve the problem of asylum seekers, and that the task of Poland is to explain to everyone in Europe that Serbia is doing that.

He recalled that the prevailing atmosphere in Europe regarding immigrants, whether they come legally or illegally, was more unfavorable than ever in the past.