site.btaSerbia's Interior Minister from Kumanovo: More than 50% of Illegal Migrants in Serbia Come from Bulgaria

Most of the illegal migrants coming to Serbia and North Macedonia come from EU countries, said the interior ministers of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, and of North Macedonia, Pance Toskovski, after a meeting on Thursday in Kumanovo (Northeast North Macedonia). "The whole EU is complaining that migrants are coming to them from other parts of the world and we have a specific situation that migrants are coming to us from the EU", Dacic said, adding that more than 50% of the illegal migrants come to Serbia from Bulgaria, while around 30% come from North Macedonia. "And when you combine them, you actually see that 80-90% [of the migrants] come from Bulgaria and Greece. So the EU has to help us solve this issue - logistically, organizationally and financially," Dacic concluded, as quoted by TV Channel 5.

"Most of the illegal migrants entering (North) Macedonia are from our southern neighbour Greece", Toskovski added, thanking Frontex for their assistance to the border police along the southern border.

According to the announcement from the Interior Ministry in Skopje, the meeting of the two interior ministers in Kumanovo focused on "ways to improve cooperation between the two ministries, coordination for the participation of a delegation from the Republic of Serbia in a simulation exercise for real-time information exchange on migrant smuggling and human trafficking along the Eastern Mediterranean route, which will be held between October 14 and 17 in Ohrid."  The text of an agreement between the two governments on the establishment of a joint one-stop shop at the Tabanovce - Presevo border was also discussed.

At the meeting, the two ministers also sought a solution "to improve the transit of citizens through the border crossing points between the two countries, which are particularly busy during the summer period, when columns of cars form there," the statement reads.