Tunisia and Burundi won’t be the last countries that will no longer enjoy the benefits of travelling visa-free to Serbia, as the latter may end up cancelling visa-free travelling for many other countries.
According to EU Observers, the Serbian embassy to the EU has announced it will align itself with EU visa policy until the end of the year, indicating that the free travel visa regime might be scrapped for Russian nationals, too, SchengenVisaInfo reports.
Nationalities from about 20 countries, including Russians and Belarusians that are excluded from the EU’s visa-free system, will potentially have their right to visa-free travelling revoked.
However, it is yet unclear whether Belgrade will impose visas to some countries, such as India and Türkiye, which are the countries of origin for the incoming migrants in recent months.
More specifically, Serbia has witnessed a spike in the number of Cuban refugees, up from 36 to 339, as well as Indian arrivals, which increased from 557 to 4,469. In addition, arrivals from Türkiye have increased from 1,653 to 6,186, representing the most evident increase in border crossings.
The Western Balkan route, which is mainly used by Syrian and Afghan nationals to cross the border to the EU in search of a better life, and a rise in refugees from Türkiye, Tunisia, India, and Cuba has been evident recently.
In 2021, Türkiye, Tunisia, India, Cuba, and Burundi comprised 2.5 per cent of illegal border crossings recorded on the Western Balkan Route. This was up to 20 per cent so far this year.
Serbia’s visa-free list now consists of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Guinea Bissau, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Suriname, and Türkiye.
However, Serbia isn’t the only country to experience a surge in illegal migration. A document from the Czech EU presidency revealed earlier this month that Member States on the north of the Western Balkan has been recording a higher number of asylum seekers, mainly from citizens of countries included in the free-visa travel countries in Serbia.
Belgium has reported a surge in asylum applicants from Cuba and Burundi, while the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) reveals an increase in violence against people on the border between Serbia and Hungary.
“This month, the BVMN observed an increase in the number of pushbacks -and their level of violence- perpetrated by Hungarian authorities at the Serbian-Hungarian border, which currently constitutes the busiest route in the region,” the report pointed out.
Injuries include fractures, dislocations, and reports of physical assaults with batons, belts, rubber bullets, as well as electroshock.
In the upcoming days, the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is expected to visit Western Balkan, during which matters that concern the region, such as EU aspirations, will be potentially discussed.