Asylum Protection Center Chief: Police Searches in Serbia Won’t Render Results, EU’s Solidarity Needed To Settle Migrant Issue

Rados Djurovic (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)

The executive director of the Asylum Protection Center, Rados Djurovic, said on Aug.  1, that relocating migrants from Serbian’s northern towns of Sombor and Subotica to the country’s south would not prevent migrant smuggling, stressing that Belgrade should request from Hungary to stop illegally sending them back to Serbia.

Djurovic told BETA that Serbia should request from the EU countries in the neighborhood - Greece and Bulgaria, and the EU as a whole that the migrant crisis burden be distributed equally.

In early morning on Aug. 1, the Serbian Interior Ministry police officers had discovered more than 200 irregular migrants in the territory of Subotica and had confiscated a larger quantities of ammunition and weapons, Police Directorate chief Col. Ivica Ivkovic said earlier on Aug. 1.

Djurovic recalled that migrants had been coming via Bulgaria and Greece to Serbia, from where they had been smuggled through the border with Hungary, mainly in the Subotica territory, on their way to the EU.

"Hungary has been pushing them back to Serbia, and those people, often mistreated and exhausted, cannot find a place in reception centers in Subotica and Sombor, and therefore turn to smugglers, who offer them temporary accommodation in the open,” Djurovic explained.

He also said that Serbia’s migrant relocation policy “absolutely suited” smugglers as they were making more profit. Djurovic added that it was “a vicious circle,” which, unfortunately could not be broken with ongoing actions of the relevant bodies.