Brussels, 04/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has warned the Balkan countries that have recently benefited from the liberalisation of visa obligations for their citizens, to avoid any abuse of this new right. Since the beginning of the year, several hundreds of citizens from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), the Serbian Republic and Montenegro have gone to Belgium to submit requests for asylum. On Tuesday 2 March, a spokesperson for the European Commission, Michele Cercone, declared that “countries subject to this liberalisation must inform their citizens of their rights and the limits on these freedoms. The Commission is requesting these countries do everything possible to prevent their citizens abusing this freedom of travelling to the EU without visas”. The spokesman added that “this is a question of migratory pressure. Most of them are economic asylum seekers and their requests therefore have little chance of success”. On last Monday alone, 256 people from Macedonia and Serbia requested asylum from the Belgian services, indicated the Belgian prime minister, Yves Leterme. The latter has written a letter to the European commissioner for internal affairs, Cecilia Malmström, explaining this problem to her. Serbia has now already announced that it will repatriate its nationals (most of whom are Albanian speakers) and who suddenly flooded into Belgium, according to an announcement made on Tuesday by the Serbian home affairs minister, Ivica Dacic. The minister asserted to the Serbian press that in this connection “we will take action and explain to our citizens that false asylum seekers will be repatriated, as stipulated in the readmission agreement” in force. The minister also explained that “it is very important to eradicate this trend in an effort to prevent any threat against visa waivers. The only comment currently emanating from Europe on the subject regards the case of Belgium”. (B.C./transl.fl)