The government will resume taking measures and if necessary, some of them will be strengthened in an effort the number of fake asylum seekers to continue dropping i.e. to ensure that the visa liberalisation is not put into question since undoubtedly it is the biggest benefit from the EU integration process for the citizens of Macedonia so far.

This was stated by Minister of Interior Affairs Gordana Jankuloska after a meeting Tuesday in Skopje with the Director of the Swiss Federal Office for Migration, Mario Gattiker. "We've held a successful and constructive meeting discussing issues of great importance for Macedonia and Switzerland, where the Macedonian diaspora is made up of 80.000 people. Talks also focused on the migration issue after obtaining visa liberalisation and on ways to boost cooperation in all areas," she said.

Asked to comment ongoing debates on the possibility of annulling the visa liberalisation, Jankuloska said that debates on any topic in the EU were legitimate. "We neither can have an impact over any of the debates nor affect the outcome of these discussions."

"What we can do and are doing continuously is make more efforts to prevent future fake asylum seekers and to demonstrate that Macedonian institutions are effective and functional having the potential to deal with issues," the minister noted.

With Switzerland, she added, we have managed to reduce the number of fake asylum seekers in a relatively short period of time. "By joining forces, relevant institutions in Switzerland and Macedonia managed to reduce the number of fake asylum seekers whose goal is to bring it down to zero."

Explaining that the cooperation was envisaged by a readmission agreement, Director Gattiker said that excellent cooperation had been established with the Macedonian government on all levels.

"Swiss authorities have concluded that there is no political repression in Macedonia, thus being a country generally considered safe," he stated.