Visa-free regime and political pressures on Serbia

In the past few weeks Serbia has been targeted by the EU for its visa free regime the country has in place with several countries like Tunisia, Burundi, India and Cuba. Succumbing to the pressure and threats of “serious sanctions” the government of Serbia reintroduced visas for citizens of Burundi and Tunisia couple of days ago. Serbia was accused of fabricating a refugee crises at the moment when we have a war in Ukraine and when people are fleeing Ukraine due to the war or fleeing Russia due to mandatory mobilization.

However, the situation we witness in the field is completely different from what the European Union and its media machine have been stated and our goal with this statement is to highlight that what does not hold true in their narrative about Serbia as a “manufacturer” of refugees.

According to estimations based on our data, during 2022 the Klikaktiv’s beneficiaries have predominantly been refugees from Afghanistan and Syria – refugees from the two countries make up more than 70% of people on the move we have served in informal settlements in the border area between Serbia and EU external borders.

Refugees who enter Serbia via the visa free regime make up to 19% of all displaced population in the country, with people from Tunisia making up 14.5% (mainly families with children, women travelling with children, and single men), from India 2.6% (mainly single men) and Burundi 1.7% (mainly families and women travelling alone).

Serbia’s visa free regime with many countries originates from The Non-Alligned Movement, and is a remnant of a great political idea. We do realize any form of a visa free regime can be misused but in this case the number of people arriving to EU using the regime is negligible compared to refugees coming from other countries in the world in which there are extremely repressive regimes in place or decades-long wars, and yet Europe states there is no place for those whose lives are threatened.

In this case, it is obvious that the European Union wanted to find an external scape goat for something it bears at least partial responsibility, including years-long exploitation, destabilization and destruction of the so called Third World countries. Given that the EU did not feel any obligation n to amend to its harmful practices, Serbia served well as a factor to blame for “fabricating” a refugee crises and creating an additional burden to a Europe already in a difficult situation.
We share with you an example that points out the extent to which this narrative is abused, and that is a media piece (available here) which reports that the number of refugees from Burundi who have applied for asylum in Belgium has increased eight times in July compared to May and the increase is – from 34 to 263 individuals.

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser speaking with President of Tunisia Habib Bourguiba at the first conference of non-aligned countries in Belgrade in September 1961. Photo credit: AFP