Dacic Says Number of Illegal Border Crossings Down by Half

mup.gov.rs

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said at a Sept. 17 Berlin Process Western Balkans Summit Ministerial Meeting that Serbia’s heightened measures had led to a major drop and slowing of irregular migrations through its territory.

This year, between Jan. 1 and Sept. 2, 10,216 illegal crossings were registered on Serbia’s borders which is a drop of 61.8 percent compared to the same period in 2023 when the number of these crossings was 26,775.

A decline in the number of illegal crossings both into (63 percent) and out of Serbia (55.5 percent) has been registered.

Dacic said that at the start of the year the number of illegal crossings on the EU’s external border on the “Western Balkan route” had been lowered by one-third and that Serbia’s contribution to the decrease had been key.

Serbia is “devoted to a strong, united, regional, but also global response to this phenomenon with special attention to monitoring changes in smuggling and human trafficking models,” he said, stressing that Serbia was intensely cooperating with partner services in the region, especially Europol and Frontex.