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Matthew Brunwasser reports from Belgrade on a relaxation of European travel restrictions that allows people from Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia to enter other parts of Europe without visas. But in return, Serbia has to enact tough controls on migration and accept the return of tens of thousands of Serbs still living illegally in the EU.

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MARCO WERMAN: Travel good or bad is getting a little easier for people in Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. Starting at midnight they can travel in Europe without visas. It’s a big boost for these Balkan countries and it’s a political accomplishment for Serbia in particular. The former pariah state wants to move closer to the European Union. But as part of the deal Serbia has to tighten controls on migration. It has to accept the return of tens of thousands of Serbs living illegally in the EU and it has to prevent them from making illegal returns. Matthew Brunwasser reports from Belgrade.

MATTHEW BRUNWASSER: On the outskirts of the Serbian capital Agim Hadja and Seidi Gott are scavenging the carcass of a washing machine. The two are ethnic Roma or gypsies. These days trash picking is about their only source of income. Both lived in Germany but their claims for asylum were rejected. Hadja decided to return to Serbia. But he says he wants to go back to Germany because he can’t make ends meet here.

AGIM HADGA: [SPEAKING SERBIAN]

TRANSLATOR: I have to manage from what I find in the garbage. My children are growing up. The problems are getting harder. And I can’t support them anymore. Even the garbage cans are empty now because of the economic crisis.

BRUNWASSER: Gott lived in Germany for 17 years. He was forcibly returned after he overstayed his legal residency there. He says German police arrested him and put him on a plane. When he got off in Belgrade Serbian officials just asked a few general questions.

SEIDI GOTT: [SPEAKING SERBIAN]

TRANSLATOR: And they asked, “Can you find your way home?” And I said, “Yes.” And they said, “Okay then. Off you go.” They haven’t contacted me since. I’m totally on my own. It’s difficult for me here because in the 17 years I spent in Germany I got used to a different life. There I was working as a driver. Here there’s no work for me.

BRUNWASSER: Gott was one of the more than a million Yugoslavs who fled during the wars of the 1990s. But observers say that most Serbian asylum seekers over the years were in fact economic migrants. Serbs have been returning since long before the recent agreement. But the Serbian state is now obliged to create better living conditions so they won’t want to go back. Zoritsa Jivoinovich is with the non-profit group 484 which works on forest migration issues. She says that resettlement today is made more difficult by the global economic crisis. Sixteen percent of Serbs are already unemployed.

ZORITSA JIVOINOVICH: It’s a huge number of people. Huge really. And we now accept new families who are not able to find a job.

BRUNWASSER: Most of the returnees are poor ethnic Roma. Many lived in refugee centers in the West for years of lived off of social welfare. Jivoinovich says some of them have never even lived in Serbia.

JINOINOVICH: Especially children who are born there and they don’t speak Serbian language. They don’t know anything about Serbia culture. They are brought up in completely society. For them Serbia is a country of their ancestors but not their country. It’s very difficult to grief of those children. They don’t want to stay here.

BRUNWASSER: According to Serbia’s new migration agreement with the EU Serbia is responsible for providing social services for returnees so that they don’t try to go back. But Surdjon Reesteech at the commissariat for refugees says Serbia doesn’t have the necessary resources. He says when he meets returnees at the airport he doesn’t know what to tell them.

SURDJON REESTEECH: [SPEAKING SERBIAN]

BRUNWASSER: He says, of course Serbia wants to help in every way possible but we don’t’ have the financial means to properly reintegrate returnees to help them get on with their lives or start a business. That’s what they need the most. As long as this doesn’t happen it’s inevitable that they’ll try whatever they can to go back to the West.

Serbia wants to join the EU but is not yet an official candidate in part because of its failure to arrest Bosnian-Serb war crime suspect General Radko Mladic. But Serbians are hoping that strengthening their migration policies will show that Serbia can be a good neighbor before it makes it case for membership in the European club. For The World I’m Matthew Brunwasser, Belgrade.

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