Serbia ups patrols to thwart refugees

Serbia is to launch joint police and army patrols to beef up its borders against migrants and refugees premier Aleksandar Vucic said yesterday, warning his country would not become a “parking lot” for EU-bound refugees.

The number of migrants and refugees blocked in Serbia has grown constantly since Hungary, its northern neighbour, introduced tough new measures aimed at stopping migrants and refugees earlier this month.

“We will form joint army and police teams to protect our border,” Vucic told reporters, while giving no details of how many troops would be involved.

As of yesterday there were a total of 2,669 migrants and refugees in Serbia, of which 85 per cent were from Afghanistan and Pakistan and including a very small number of Syrians, Vucic said. The prime minister warned that migrants and refugees entering Serbia without documents and not seeking asylum would be evicted within 30 days. Serbia can accommodate 6,000 to 7,000 migrants and refugees.

Need for solution

Vucic urged the European Union to find a “global solution” to the tide of migrants and refugees which began flooding in last year, triggering Europe’s worst such crisis since the Second World War.

He warned that Serbia would not be a “parking lot for Afghans and Pakistanis arrived in Serbia from EU countries, whom no one wants.”

Serbia lies on the socalled Balkan route crossed by hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Asia and Africa since last summer on their way to western Europe.

Although the route shut down in March migrants and refugees have continued to cross the region in smaller numbers, often with the help of smugglers.

Serbian authorities said recently that 102,000 migrants and refugees had been registered since the start of the year — more than 500 a day.