Because of the increasing number of refugees on the Balkan route, the EU states have put Serbia under pressure. Swiss Minister of Justice Karin Keller-Sutter agrees that Switzerland’s liberal visa policy is responsible for the increase in illegal migration. Allegedly, Belgrade now wants to give in.
Justice Minister Keller-Sutter at the EU meeting on the Schengen Agreement in Luxembourg on October 14.
For Karin Keller-Sutter, the matter is “crystal clear”. In Luxembourg, “horse and rider were called by their names,” said the Swiss Federal Councilor and head of the Justice Department on Friday. Blame for the sharp increase in irregular migration via the Balkan route is Serbia. To be more precise: the agreements on visa-free entry that Serbia has concluded with various non-European countries.
Keller-Sutter traveled to Luxembourg for the meeting of her EU counterparts responsible for migration to discuss the sharp rise in migration numbers. For several months now, more and more migrants and refugees have been making their way to Central and Western Europe, especially via the transit routes in the Balkans.
1100 illegal entries per week
According to the EU border protection agency Frontex 228,000 people entered the Schengen area illegally in the first three quarters of this year, mainly via the Western Balkans route and the Central Mediterranean route. According to Frontex, this is an increase of 70 percent compared to the same period last year. At the same time, the highest value for the first three quarters of a year since the refugee crisis of 2016 was reached. Meanwhile, up to 1,100 seizures per week are reported from Switzerland at the eastern border. The Frontex statistics do not include the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian war refugees.
People in Bern are alarmed, although Switzerland is not a destination country for most migrants traveling the Balkan route, but only serves as a transit station. It is time to take effective measures, said Keller-Sutter in Luxembourg. As a member of the Schengen area, Switzerland takes part in the EU Council of Ministers, but also coordinates matters directly with its neighbors. At the end of September, Keller-Sutter met her Austrian counterpart, Gerhard Karner, to work out an action plan against people smugglers in Vienna.
Karner and Keller-Sutter agreed that Serbia should be pilloried because of its visa policy. The reason: Nationals from India, Tunisia, Cuba and some African countries have been able to enter the largest Balkan country without any problems for some time, because Belgrade does not impose a visa requirement on them (as a reward for the fact that these countries do not recognize Kosovo’s independence). From Serbia, however, many migrants continue illegally to the EU.
Several affected countries had intervened with the EU Commission and the Czech Council Presidency with the aim of putting the issue on the agenda, i.e. putting pressure on accession candidate Serbia. The most effective threat was likely to be to withdraw visa-free access to the EU from Belgrade if President Aleksandar Vucic’s government failed to curb irregular migration. For years, Serbs have been able to stay in the Schengen countries for 90 days without a visa.
Visa agreements are to be terminated again
The pressure apparently worked, because according to the Swiss Minister of Justice, Serbia is said to have agreed to adjust its visa rules. In concrete terms, this means that Belgrade wants to revoke its visa-free agreements with Cuba, Tunisia, India and Burundi by the end of the year. It was amazing, reported Keller-Sutter, that Belgium, for example, complained about the sudden increase in migrants from Burundi at the ministerial meeting.
In Luxembourg, Keller-Sutter also commented on the latest allegations in connection with illegal entry into Switzerland’s eastern border. A recently broadcast SRF “Rundschau” report had shown that migrants arriving in Buchs, on the border with Austria, are checked by Swiss officials, but are then smuggled on, mainly to France. According to the provisions of the Dublin Agreement, which Switzerland has also signed, the migrants would have to be sent back to the country of first refuge.
Keller-Sutter does not want to recognize a violation of the agreement. All people entering the country are checked and their illegal stay registered, which is “completely Dublin-compliant”. In addition, the migrants did not apply for asylum in Switzerland. You can’t just lock them up, you have to let them travel on.