Serbia won't hold migrants headed elsewhere - minister

Serbia won't hold migrants headed elsewhere - minister

"We won't put anyone between wires and nobody has asked us to do it. Nobody has asked us to build camps for migrants and prevent them from moving somewhere," Vulin stressed, and added that Serbia was "behaving in line with highest international standards, demonstrating it is a humane state."

Asked to comment on statements that the EU plans to finance a "migrant city" in the Balkans for up to 400,000 people, and that it might be located in Serbia, Vulin said, "nobody has asked this of us, nor have we offered it to anyone, and if they did ask, Serbia could never accept."

"No human right will be denied to anyone," Vulin said, adding that "these people" - i.e., migrants from African and Asian countries transiting Serbia on their way to the EU - "have a right to move, to enter and leave the country."

"We can't hold them in Serbia if they don't want to stay here. We won't be setting up camps for people who did not come to live in Serbia. They want to go someplace else and that is their right," the minister stressed.

Any other option, he remarked, would represent a brutal violation of their rights as migrants, and added it was "another matter how those countries where they are headed will treat them."

Vulin, who spoke during the opening of a sensory room for children and youths with sensory integration disorders - located at the Dragutin Filipovic Jusa Home, and financed by EPS - also commented on reports that Germany would deport 94,000 asylum seekers to the Balkans.

Serbia has not received any official request from Germany or any other country related to this, he said, and noted that "the 94,000 figure is more than unconfirmed - nor do we have so many people in readmission."

According to Vulin, "these are for the moment only newspaper headlines." He added that "we must first see who this is about, whether these are Serbian citizens, and in what way can they be tied to Serbia."

The minister stressed that Serbia several years ago signed a readmission agreement that envisages the rights and obligations of a country deporting, but also of the one accepting the persons in question.

"Serbia will respect its international obligations, but we expect others to also respect theirs," Vulin said.