Shasha: EU immigrants' entry from Western Balkans due to liberalisation

Referring to data from FRONTEX, which shows illegal entry from the Western Balkans into the EU has increased by 170 per cent this year, Shasha said the EU has raised concern about Kosovo for failing to approach the visa regime with the EU regime.

“You have seen how in the context of visa liberalisation for Kosovo the EU has raised concern about Kosovo not approaching the visa regime with the EU regime? Have you seen how for the same reason the EU is considering suspending Serbia's liberalisation? Well, that's why: Recent data from Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency confirm that the number of illegal entry into the EU in the first nine months of 2022 has marked increases of 70% compared to last year. This is the record of illegal EU entry for the first nine months since 2016; and half of these illegal crossings have entered the EU through the Western Balkans. Compared to last year this is an increase of 170% of illegal entry through our region. The Syrians and Afghans have been major immigrant citizenship”, Shasha wrote in a Facebook post.

Shasha said that according to the Analysis of the 2022 Strategic Risk of FRONTEX, in the scenarios of major crises in the EU's neighbourhood, the tightening of border controls in the Western Balkans will be required, in particular since <x0migration in this region is a matter of particular grief due to the presence of religious leaders who maintain close ties to extreme religious groups in the EU<1>.

This has nothing to do with Kosovo exclusively. This is a whole region problem. I have said in May of this year: how much we spend unnecessary energy on discussions of the Berlin vs Balkan Open Process, before ourselves we have a growing crisis that requires the attention and cooperation of all countries in the region”, Shasha concluded.