EU plans for border staff in Western Balkans to curb illegal migration

Employees from the European Union’s exterior border company might quickly be deployed at non-EU borders within the Western Balkans as a part of a plan to curb irregular arrivals from the area, the European Fee introduced on Monday.

“The quantity we now have proper now within the Western Balkans is round 500 personnel from Frontex deployed already however as we speak they’re solely deployed on the border between the Western Balkan companions and the EU exterior borders,” Residence Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson instructed reporters.

“With a brand new mandate, it is going to be doable to deploy additionally internally so to say, between two completely different Western Balkan companions,” she mentioned, including that it is for Frontex to resolve on the numbers vital.

This measure is a part of the Motion Plan on the Western Balkans proposed by the European Fee to sort out an increase of migrants getting into the EU through the Western Balkans.

Greater than 128,000 unlawful border crossings into the EU had been recorded through the Western Balkans in the course of the first 10 months of the yr, in line with Frontex information. That represents a 168% improve from the identical interval in 2021.

‘Threat of recent routes’

One other pillar of the Fee’s plan, unveiled a day earlier than an EU-Western Balkans summit in Albania, is for higher visa alignment between the Western Balkan nations and the EU to make sure that overseas nationals who journey to the Western Balkans visa-free don’t then cross into the EU.

Most Western Balkan international locations have visa-free preparations with the EU. Johansson mentioned that Serbia is the principle port of entry into the EU for such folks.

Serbia has visa-free offers with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Guinea Bissau, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Suriname, and Turkey.

It just lately ended visa-free journey with Tunisia and Burundi and “they’ve additionally promised to do the identical in terms of India and likewise promised to align additional with different third international locations,” the Commissioner mentioned. 

“However all of the Western Balkan companions have vital gaps in terms of visa coverage alignment with the EU visa coverage, and that is why they should be addressed in all of the Western Balkan international locations,” she added.

She additionally instructed reporters that “with a stronger alignment in Serbia, there may additionally be a danger of recent routes utilizing visa-free regimes in different Western Balkan international locations.”

Three key summits

Visa alignment is anticipated to be mentioned by leaders on the EU-Western Balkans summit in Tirana on Tuesday. 

Alignment with the EU’s overseas and safety coverage together with sanction regimes, a prerequisite to accession into the bloc, may even be on the agenda.

Right here, once more, Serbia is an outlier having up to now refused to impose any restrictive measures on Russia over its battle in Ukraine.

Serbian President Aleksander Vučić has threatened to boycott the summit, held for the primary time in a Western Balkan nation, over a dispute with Kosovo.

The summit will come days earlier than conferences of EU residence affairs ministers and leaders in Brussels the place the candidate standing for Bosnia and Herzegovina and visa liberalisation for Kosovo will probably be mentioned.