Germany: Serbia Is a Partner in the Balkans for Dealing with Migrant Crisis, Organized Crime

Undocumented migrants (BETAPHOTO/Interior Ministry/MO)

Serbia remains Germany's key partner in the Western Balkans, and Berlin needs to assist the modernization of Serbian police and customs to help handle the migrant crisis and bolster the struggle against organized crime, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) Foundation close to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cristian Democratic Union (CDU) has said.

The Balkan Security Network reported on May 30 that the influential foundation had recalled in its study, An Atlas of Partners for German Foreign Policy, that German federal police were already cooperating with Serbia and that the partnership should be strengthened with programs to equip and train Serbian police and customs officers.

"Serbia is of central importance to Germany for regulating global migratory streams, and strengthening cooperation in order to create peace and stability is needed," the Foundation said. The international importance of Serbia's geographic location is also stressed in the study, which says that Serbia is a migrant route and that important organized crime routes run through Serbia.

The German government is advised to provide technical equipment and training programs for Serbian police and customs, to manage migratory routes more successfully and improve the quality of the struggle against organized transnational crime.