Belgian PM visits Macedonia on Balkan asylum issue

Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme travels to Skopje on Monday to discuss possible ways to stop the escalating number of Western Balkan citizens seeking asylum in his country.

During his stay in Macedonia, Leterme is to meet his Macedonian counterpart, Nikola Gruevski, to visit the regions from which many of the immigrants originate.

After lifting the Schengen visa restriction for Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro at the end of last year, Brussels has reported that the number of Macedonian and Serbian asylum seekers at its doorsteps has soared.

An increased number of immigrants from Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbian in February 2008, has also been reported.

Brussels said it is impossible for it to accept asylum applications from these illegal immigrants and announced it will start deporting them starting from Wednesday. The visa lift was only for tourist travels, it reminded.

"They must know that they are always welcome in Belgium as tourists, for some time, but they will never get financial help from Belgian authorities," Belgian State Secretary for Immigration Melchior Wathelet said last week.

Macedonian and Serbian officials explained that many of the asylum seekers originate from several poor regions where they are being lured by murky tour agencies who organize the transport with a promise of a better life.

Macedonia and Serbia already closed several tour agencies and announced they will engage in informing the people that they will not get their desire fulfilled upon their arrival there.

On Friday, Switzerland and Sweden also reported drastic increase in asylum seekers from these countries in the last Month.

The EU has said that this is a serious issue that needs to be tackled but has not decided to revoke the visa liberalization for Macedonia and Serbia as a consequence.

Source: Xinhua