MINISTER VULIN AND MR. STANKOVIC: THE PROBLEM OF MIGRANTS SHOULD BE SOLVED JOINTLY

27. August 2015.

Presevo - Minister for Labor, Employment, Veterans’ and Social Issues Aleksandar Vulin said yesterday in Presevo during a tour of the Centre for the Reception of Migrants and the Pre-reception Center in Miratovac that the problem of migrants must be solved jointly by the Balkan and EU countries.

He said that the problem of migrants equally affected the EU member countries and those that weren’t members, which is why the problem couldn’t be resolved without a joint approach.

“We’ve received the information that Hungary wishes to put its army on the border with Serbia, and we believe that it isn’t a good solution. Although Serbia isn’t an EU member, it is part of the problem and we, therefore, need to have a unique approach in order to get from the EU IPA funds concrete financial means for solving the problem of migrants”, Minister Vulin said.

He reiterated that Serbia needed a specific EU financial support, because its costs for the accommodation and food of migrants increased on a daily basis.

“It is necessary for us that the EU pays the appropriate financial means directly to our budget, so that we could be able to pay salaries to the additionally engaged teams of doctors, as well as to purchase fuel, food, provide transport and other necessary things. I repeat that the problem must be solved jointly," Minister Vulin said.

According to the information of the Red Cross, around 2,000 migrants passed through the Reception Center in Presevo over the past two days, while 400 of them were registered yesterday morning. According to the estimates of the Minister and a representative of the Red Cross, it is a common figure which was recorded prior to the great wave of migrants over the past weekend.

The President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, Zoran Stankovic, also appealed to the international community to provide the financial assistance to Serbia as soon as possible.

“We have had a large number of visits and a lot of promises, but those promises weren’t fulfilled. We hope that the promises will finally begin to be honored and that we will receive the financial assistance, so that we could be able to provide medical treatment, food and water to migrants", Mr. Stankovic said.

He said that the local self-government in Presevo also needed help, primarily the public utility company in that municipality, which cleaned up tons of trash per day, even though it didn’t have a sufficient number of trucks.

The Secretary of the Red Cross branch office in Presevo Ahmet Halimi said that the Reception Center had the supplies of food and water for a maximum of two to three days and he appealed to donors to help the Red Cross branch office in Presevo.

Otherwise, migrants, who are lined up to get the documents necessary for continuing their journey, say that they are satisfied with the way they are treated in Serbia.

“It's a little warmer now and we have to wait for a little bit longer, but it is much better in Serbia than in Macedonia, because we get food and water here and we can take a rest and continue our journey towards the EU”, said a group of migrants from Syria.

Around 7,000 migrants passed through the Reception Center in Presevo over the past weekend.

Source: “Tanjug” news agency, Radio and Television of Serbia and Coordination Body