SERBIA DENIES ENTRY TO KOSOVOALBANIAN RETURNEES FROM SWEDEN
For more than a month, the Serb authorities have readmitted none of the rejected KosovoAlbanian asylum seekers forcibly returned by Sweden, in spite of an earlier bilateral arrangement providing for the return of nationals who had previously been approved by the rump-Yugoslav (FRY) embassy in Stockholm.
In May, a total of 53 Kosovo-Albanian returnees were stopped at the border by Serb border guards although their identity documents had been checked and approved by the Stockholm embassy of the FRY.
The measure concerns Kosovo-Albanians whose application has been rejected by Sweden and who were forcibly returned by the Swedish police after refusing voluntary departure. A spokesman of the Swedish police said that the Serb authorities had given no reason for their abrupt change of policy.
The Swedish authorities decided to halt the deportation of Kosovo-Albanians until further notice.
Earlier, the Swedish-Serb arrangement had drawn strong criticism from humanitarian organisations in Sweden. There was concern that the Serb authorities would make use of the Swedish advance information on returnees for registering politically undesirable persons. "This is throwing people to the lions", Madeleine Seidlitz, a Stockholm based asylum lawyer said. "It is obvious that something is going very wrong when an embassy requires information on its own nationals with valid passports before allowing them to return home. Meanwhile the embassy of the FRY said that it would no longer check travel documents in advance and that control should take place upon entry as before. This does however not imply that returnees will be allowed to cross the border.
Source: *Svenska Dagbladet* , 1.6.94.