Skopje, 8 June 2023 (MIA) — Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski addressed Thursday a ministerial session held as part of the Sarajevo Migration Dialogue 3 conference.

Speaking at the "Advancing the Skopje Declaration on Sustainable Migration Governance in the Western Balkans" session, Minister Spasovski said one of North Macedonia's priorities was the effective management of borders and the prevention of migrant smuggling along the Western Balkan route.

"Migrant smuggling has been an ongoing threat in the past year due to pressure on borders from illegal crossings by people from countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The link between the Eastern Mediterranean route and the Western Balkans is a high-risk route, given that Turkey and Greece still have a large number of migrants on their territories," he said.

The conference is held to define specific follow up actions toward implementing the 2022 Skopje Declaration commitments — to further strengthen cooperation to address smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings; to increase access to legal pathways for migrants in protracted transit situation in line with relevant competences; and to work toward a holistic return management approach — all of which Spasovski referred to.

To strengthen regional cooperation, Spasovski said, the Ministry of Interior was participating in several Western Balkan, Europol, and Interpol working groups on fighting organized international crime.

On the access to legal pathways for migrants in protracted transit, he said the return and reintegration of persons into their countries of origin were important yet challenging aspects of migration management.

"The lack of readmission agreements signed with the relevant countries of origin as well as the impossibility to establish people's identity and carry out official checks with the relevant services in their home countries remains one of the main problems we face," he said, adding that the identification of illegal migrants was the first and most important step in the return process. 

Regarding a holistic return management approach, he said awareness should be raised of assisted voluntary return as a humane, effective and sustainable return policy.

Expressing confidence that assisted voluntary return and reintegration programs would significantly increase return rates, he said that North Macedonia would "also undertake efforts to strengthen national capacities for the preparation and implementation of forced return, which cannot be excluded as a mechanism of protection against illegal migrants."

The interior minister also stressed that close cooperation, regular communication, coordination and exchange of experiences with counterparts from the Western Balkans and the EU as well as other partner organizations were the key to successul migrant management for the whole region.

Sarajevo Migration Dialogue 3 is cohosted by the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU and facilitated by the UN International Organization for Migration. mr/