Serbia taking 'all measures' to halt unfounded asylum requests: minister

(LJUBLJANA) - Serbia is working to stop its citizens making unfounded requests for asylum in the EU, Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic said Friday, after key EU states pressed for visas to be reintroduced to curb soaring demands from the Balkans.

"At a domestic level, we are taking all measures that are at our disposal to prevent" unfounded asylum requests, Mrkic told a joint news conference with his Slovenian counterpart Karel Erjavec.

He added however that measures to prevent Serbians from filing such requests in European Union countries "are limited by international (human rights) conventions."

"That is why we need the understanding of our neighbours and of those states that are the target of asylum seekers," Mrkic said.

He acknowledged that most of these asylum seekers areactually economic migrants -- people who "go there hoping to illegally make money".

Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden are all calling on the European Commission to allow them to reintroduce controls after Serbia and several other Balkan states were given visa free status in 2010 under the EU's Schengen freedom of movement provisions.

They say that many people are abusing the system to seek asylum in their countries, and since each request has to be properly examined, the system has become totally clogged up.

The Commission and the European Parliament are currently negotiating a safeguard clause which could allow a member state to seek a temporary suspension of the visa free arrangements but it has not been adopted yet.