Berlin: Ambassador Janković talks to “Süddeutsche Zeitung”

20. Oct 2022.
An impression is being created that the visa regime of Serbia is the main reason for the irregular migration to the European Union, but numbers show otherwise, Ambassador of Serbia to Germany Snežana Janković said in a statement to “Süddeutsche Zeitung” today.

Speaking to the German daily newspaper, she highlighted the official numbers stated by Belgrade, according to which the majority of migrants who had entered Serbia since the beginning of the year had come through the land border from the neighbouring countries such as North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania.

Only 6.67% of them came through the Belgrade Airport to Serbia, said Ambassador Janković.

She also stressed that the number of migrants with the largest growth was from Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan.

At the same time, Ambassador Janković stated that Serbia understood the concerns of its German and European partners and wanted to cooperate on reaching a solution.

For that reason, in her words, conditions for citizens from India, Burundi, Tunisia and Cuba for entering the country had been made more stringent. They must now show a paid return ticket with the date of leaving the country.

Ambassador Janković stated that President Aleksandar Vučić had announced that Serbia would considerably align its policy with the EU policy, and that the appropriate working group was already working on the details.

She rejected the allegations that Belgrade was enabling a non-visa regime to countries which did not recognise the independence of the so-called Kosovo. She negated the accusation of the German Freedom Party (FDP) that Serbia was, in agreement with Moscow, intentionally forwarding migrants to the EU.

She highlighted the fact that the majority of countries whose citizens could travel to Serbia without any visas had already had such agreements with Serbia for decades, inherited from former Yugoslavia. He also highlighted that Yugoslavia had been one of the founders of the Non-Alignment Movement.

The German newspaper said that Belgrade’s visa regime had caused a disapproval from a number of members of the EU, including Minister of Interior of Germany Nancy Faeser, who said that Serbia had to change its visa practice now, and warned that this practice could be a roadblock for Serbia's chances to become a EU Member State.

Source: Tanjug