Immigration law

BELGRADE - The Serbian government on Thursday adopted bills amending the Law on Foreigners and the Law on Employment of Foreigners.

An official statement released after a government session said the move would enable foreign nationals to attain the right to temporary residence and work in Serbia through a unified procedure.

The Moscow Embassy in Sofia offered an irresistible offer for Bulgarian IT specialists - to emigrate to Russia under a simplified procedure together with their families.

The proposal was uploaded on the Facebook page of the Russian mission in Bulgaria. The campaign is under the motto "Russia - country of opportunities".

Aid organisations and legal experts are concerned at the EU-funded construction of a 'detention area' in Bosnia that would see migrants and refugees repatriated before they can even reach the bloc.

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic said on Tuesday she expected amendments to the Foreigners Act to enter parliamentary procedure in March.

Speaking to reporters at a ceremony at the Aviation Academy, Brnabic said the amended act would unify working and residence permits in a simplified, fully electronic procedure.

That will enable easier and quicker employment, she added.

Foreign athletes, farmers and researchers will be able to work in Türkiye for a determined period without a need to obtain a work permit, Labor and Social Security Ministry has announced.

The employment regulation aiming to facilitate foreigners to work in Türkiye without a work permit has come into force.

Turkish Coast Guard teams have saved a total of 186 irregular migrants that were pushed back to Turkish waters by Greece in two separate operations conducted in the İzmir and Muğla provinces.

Greece has pushed back a total of 41,523 irregular migrants to Turkish waters between 2020 and May 31, 2022, according to a report by Turkey's Ombudsman Institution (KDK).

The report also said that 53 irregular migrants in 2021 and 33 others in 2022 lost their lives - either drowned or froze to death - due to pushbacks.

The grave of Syrian migrant Ahmed Al-Hassan at Tatar cemetery outside the village of Bohoniki, near the Polish-Belarusian border, eastern Poland, 16 November 2021. 19-year-old Ahmed drowned in the Bug River as he tried to cross. EPA-EFE/MARTIN DIVISEK

Human Rights Watch accused authorities in Greece of allegedly using migrants to help carry out summary, illegal deportations of asylum seekers at the country's border before they are able to register their claims.

The number of irregular migrants caught in Turkey's seas and migrant movement have increased since the start of the year this year compared to the same period of 2021, data from the country's Coast Guard have shown.