According to Nehammer, the bilateral operation is particularly important because there is no Frontex mandate in the region and therefore no use of the EU border protection agency is possible. The local police officers are to be sent to Montenegro in 2021. Four of the officers will be specially trained drone operators, the interior minister announced. The commitment of the Austrian police officers “will improve security at our borders”, Sergej Sekulovic thanked his counterpart. “Austria is a very reliable partner for the entire region,” emphasized the Montenegrin interior minister.
“The deployment of the police in Montenegro also protects the Austrian border,” Nehammer was convinced. The main topic of the previous meeting was the migration situation. The ministers agreed that this is a common challenge and that cooperation is important. There is potential for expansion in the areas of personnel and technical resources in the Western Balkans, and Austria wants to provide support here as well.
In addition, the so-called “return plan” for migrants who are not likely to remain in their countries of origin was also an issue. Nehammer once again positioned himself as a hardliner on the migration issue; he had already stressed several times that repatriations at the gates of the EU would send the “right signals” to the countries of origin. This was already agreed with Bosnia in the Interior Minister’s first visit to the Western Balkans in April. The Bosnian authorities are currently exploring which persons are eligible for repatriation. This is coordinated via the “Platform against illegal migration” founded in Vienna last year. Montenegro does not currently have return agreements, but is making efforts to do so.
160 asylum applications in Montenegro
In Montenegro itself, around 160 asylum applications had been submitted by mid-July this year. Most of the refugees come from Afghanistan, Morocco and Iran. At the same time, the authorities in Montenegro apprehended almost 1,600 migrants. At the press conference, Sekulovic emphasized that his country is rejecting the majority of the migrants who enter the country.
After Kosovo and Albania, Montenegro was the third and last country on Nehammer’s trip to the Western Balkans. At the end of the two-day trip, the Minister of the Interior said it had once again been shown how important personal exchange with the ministers of the Balkan countries is.
