The government in Belgrade has recently incurred the displeasure of many EU countries with its entry policy. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), for example, recently lambasted: “Serbia must change its visa practices, now and not at some point.” The backdrop is the significant increase in illegal entry into the EU via the Balkans. As migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey increasingly arrive from countries such as India, Tunisia and Burundi, Serbia is in focus – with its visa practices, which, as Faeser puts it, “not very well”.

Despite its aesthetic value, the practice looks something like this: Citizens of different countries can enter Serbia without a visa, for example by plane. For some travelers, this is clearly linked to the temptation to go through official border checkpoints into the EU. The practice could hinder Serbia’s chances of joining the EU, Faeser threatened. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson promised that, in the worst case, Serbia must be “punished” – for example by stopping visa-free travel for Serbian nationals to EU countries.

Would Serbia prefer a country that does not recognize Kosovo’s independence?

When asked by SZ, the Serbian ambassador in Berlin, Snežana Janković, was “concerned” about what was being said about her country: “Sometimes the impression is given that Serbian visa practices are the main problem in irregular migration to the EU.” On the other hand, he referred to official figures from Belgrade, according to which the majority of migrants who have entered the Republic of Serbia since the beginning of the year have crossed the land border from neighboring countries such as North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania. Only 6.67 percent go through Belgrade Airport. Overall, the increase in people from Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan was the highest recently.

Nevertheless, according to Janković, “the concerns of our German and European partners are understood” and they want to “help solve the problem”. For example, Serbia has tightened entry requirements for people from India, Burundi, Cuba and Tunisia: you now have to present a paid return ticket with a fixed departure date. By the end of the year, President Aleksandar Vučić had announced that Serbia’s visa policy would be “basically adapted” to EU policy. Details will be worked out by the working group.

Recently, accusations have been repeatedly made that Belgrade’s visa policy favors citizens who – like Serbia – refuse to recognize the independence of neighboring Kosovo. Ambassador Janković sharply rejected this, as well as accusations coming from the FDP that Serbia, in agreement with Moscow, wants to smuggle migrants into the EU in a targeted manner: Relevant agreements have been made with most countries whose citizens can enter Serbia without a visa Decades , so it is a “relic of the former Yugoslavia”. At the time, the country was a founding member of the “Movement of Non-Aligned States”, which did not wish to join either of the two bloc powers during the Cold War.