COMPULSORY RETURN OF ILLEGAL ALIENS FROM THE EU
February 15, 2006
Before the EU softens the visa regime, Serbia & Montenegro will first have to accept around 100.000 of its citizens living and working illegally in the Union. The issue of the readmission of illegal aliens is one of the most important ones in the political relations between the state union and the European Union. Minister Rasim Ljajic has opened a special office at Belgrade airport, to assist the people who get deported from the countries where they haven't managed to regulate their status. "Hello. You have 48 hours to leave Germany". This is the warning that the illegal immigrant workers will face for example in Frankfurt on the Main, but also in other European cities if they refuse to return to Serbia voluntarily within the agreed time limit. Both volunteers and those forced to return will be provided with assistance by the Readmission Office at Belgrade airport where unsuccessful asylum-seekers will arrive by JAT charter flights.
According to Ljajic, the exact number is unknown of Serbia&Montenegro's citizens illegally residing in western European countries but "the estimates are between 50.000 and 100.000". "Most of them are Roma, Bosniaks and Serbs, and since the ratification of the first readmission agreement around 3.500 Serbia&Montenegro's citizens returned from western Europe per year", said Ljajic. He said that in January 75 Serbia&Montenegro's citizens returned from Germany, where most Serbia&Montenegro's citizens are residing illegally.
The readmission agreements, signed with a total of 15 countries so far, are one of the preconditions for putting Serbia on the white Shenghen list. The other two preconditions, if we exclude Ratko Mladic, are police instead of military border control and modern passports much more difficult to forge. The agreements not only prevent the illegal migrations of Serbia's citizens, but also the citizens of other countries who transit through our territory.
"As for our citizens, our obligation is to reintegrate them into our society. And as for third countries citizens, we must also sign readmission contracts with their countries so we could return them to their native countries", Sanja Mrvaljevic of the EU Integration Office explains.
KOSOVO ISSUE
The Minister of Human and Minority Rights says that on the ratification of the agreements the state union didn't want to oblige itself to accept numerous illegal emigrants from Kosovo, with an explanation that it can't provide living conditions for them in central Serbia, where they have never lived or owned any properties. In the first half of the year 2005, Serbia&Montenegro was in first place when it comes to the number of aliens seeking asylum in EU countries, but Minister Ljajic says this number is "fake" because most of these asylum-seekers were from Kosovo.
"In this way, a false image is created, and all this could reflect badly , and then some, on our request to be put on the white Schengen list. We can't be put on the white Schengen list with such a large asylum applications", Ljajic said.
Ljajic said that in 2004, Serbia&Montenegro was in second place with 22.300 asylum applications, and in the first half of 2005 we climbed into first place, in front of Russia and China with 10.800 applications.
DEPORTEES' CHILDREN GIVE UP SCHOOL
As many as 1/3 of the children who were forced to return from the West with their families speak their first languages badly so they give up further schooling, these are the records of the "Reintegration" organization from Novi Pazar. This NGO organizes workshops for the preparation of the children so they could adapt more easily to the classes in their mother tongue.
The "Reintegration" coordinator Kadrija Mehemdovic has said for the Beta news agency that around 40.000 people have returned to the Sandzak region since 2000. Sixty children have attended the workshop so far, whose parents spent 12 years abroad on average. "We have been working with these children since September. We have recently organized one more group, and the children from the first group still come here from time to time", said Mehmedovic.
The most difficult thing for 10-year-old Nedzat Osmanovic who was deported from Germany a year ago, is the Cyrillic alphabet. "When I came from Germany I didn't speak a word of Serbian or write Cyrillic. Last year I didn't go to school because I couldn't understand what the teacher was teaching. It is better now", Nedzat said.
The children attending the first language workshop talk German to each other because "it is easier for them". A teacher fluent in both languages works with them.
Eight-year-old Alma Suljovic likes to go to the workshop because she meets other children there who also speak German. "I like it here because I can communicate without any problems without anyone laughing at me", says Alma, who dreams like other children returnees, of returning to Germany when she grows up.
SUPPORT FROM THE SWEDISH GOVERNMENT
Rasim Ljajic says that the opening of the Readmission Office at Belgrade airport was supported by the Swedish Government which granted 72.000 euros for the equipment and the salaries for the Office employees, where two social workers and a Red Cross representative will be working. The Swedish Migration Minister Barbro Holmberg said that most applications by Serbia&Montenegro's citizens for asylum in Sweden are rejected which means that they will have to be returned. She says that many people who have seeked asylum in Sweden have "sold everything they have" and their asylum applications have been rejected so it is necessary for them to get assistance and support in the Readmission Office on their return from Sweden.
B92, Beta |
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