SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
The two-day ministerial conference on sustainable management of migrations in the Western Balkans, co-organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) began, attended by ministers of interior affairs from the region. The Minister of Internal Affairs of the RNM, Oliver Spasovski, the Permanent Coordinator of the UN in North Macedonia, Rossana Dudziak, the General Director of IOM, Antonio Vitorino, participated with their addresses, and the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Czech Republic Vit Rakusan, as well as the European European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi also had their video address. “Many times it has been emphasized that the management of migration is a complex security challenge, which we face both as a country and as a region as a whole, because the Balkan Peninsula is part of the natural corridor and crossroads of migrant routes and sub-routes, which lead from Asia and Africa to Central and Western Europe. Illegal migrations are a daily topic of discussion and action by police services in our region and in Europe, where the pressure and transit of illegal migration through the Western Balkan route remains high in 2022, and the criminal market with migrant smuggling due to the demand for criminal services continues and is attractive and profitable to criminal groups. And on the so-called Balkan route, we are registering networks of organized criminal groups, which use all opportunities to acquire large sums of money earned in a criminal way,” said Spasovski.
