Serbian and Macedonian citizens 'risk' losing the freedom to enter the European border-free Schengen area without a visa because their governments are failing to curb an exodus of bogus asylum seekers,

Serbian and Macedonian citizens 'risk' losing the freedom to enter the European border-free Schengen area without a visa because their governments are failing to curb an exodus of bogus asylum seekers, Belgium warned Thursday.
Since visas were dropped in December 2009, Belgium and Sweden have repeatedly complained of being swamped with asylum requests from Serbians and Macedonians who they claim try to abuse the system.
'Yes, we still have a lot,' Belgian Migration Minister Melchior Wathelet told the German Press Agency dpa on the margins of a meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg.
One diplomat told dpa that Wathelet received backing from a number of countries, including Sweden, Germany and France, during the closed-door meeting.
Wathelet said Macedonia posed a greater problem. 'Less than one per cent' of asylum requests from the two Balkan countries were found to be admissible, he said.
Swedish Migration Minister Tobias Billstrom recognized there was 'an increased number of manifestly unfounded asylum applications' and said 'that problem has not yet been solved.'
'The countries of the Western Balkans need to take responsibility for their citizens,' Billstrom told dpa, stressing that countries hoping to join the EU cannot have people claiming to be escaping from persecution.
In Luxembourg, the European Commission presented a report on how Serbia and Macedonia have made use of their Schengen visa freedom.
Wathelet said it was 'not very positive' for Serbia, and 'very, very negative' for Macedonia, as figures for bogus asylum seekers from that country 'remain very bad.'
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom only told journalists that there was 'a problem,' which was being raised with Belgrade and Skopje.
She said most failed asylum applicants were Roma, and suggested both countries should do more to improve the community's living conditions.
EU countries can reintroduce visa controls as a way to pressure Serbia and Macedonia - but the procedure is cumbersome.
'The risk (to reintroduce visas) is there ... we asked for a monitoring, there were a certain number of conditions which seemed to have been fulfilled in 2009 and which are no longer today, especially for Macedonia,' Wathelet said.
Malmstrom said, 'There was no suggestion today that there would be a suspension (of the visa-free regime), but (there was) expression from certain countries of their concerns.'
The commission recently proposed fast-tracking the procedure for reintroducing visas for non EU-countries that abuse the Schengen system.
EU interior ministers backed the draft reform, which still needs to be discussed with the European Parliament. But, even under the new set up, visas would be reintroduced only as a 'very last resort,' Malmstrom said.