EC says EU members can send migrants to Serbia

EC says EU members can send migrants to Serbia

The European Commission said on Monday "all EU countries can return to Serbia those migrants from third countries who do not receive asylum in the EU."

This interpretation given today is based on a readmission agreement, according to a Beta agency report.

Spokeswoman for the European Commission Natasha Berto said that when it comes to the visa regime, relations with countries outside the EU are regulated by readmission agreements, which obligate those country to take back migrants who do not receive asylum in the EU.

"The whole European Union has such a collective agreement on readmission with Serbia," said she.

Berto told a news conference that EU member states based on this "can also return to Serbia Serbian citizens who do not receive asylum, which is linked with the visa-free regime for temporary travel of Serbian nationals in the Schengen area without borders within the union."

When asked whether Hungary can return migrants from Syria and other Asian and African countries to Serbia, Berto specified:

"What is customarily contained in such agreements on readmission is the provision that citizens of third countries who pass through a state with which the EU has a readmission agreement can be sent back, and this country accepts their return if it previously allowed such persons to pass in transit."

Serbian Minister of Labor Aleksandar Vulin said last week that those migrants who "cross into Hungary and are registered there, and then forcibly returned to Serbia, will not be accepted."

Also last week, State Secretary at the Ministry of Labor Nenad Ivanisevic said that Serbia would not accept refugees Hungary...