08.11.2015.

Minister Gasic in Dimitrovgrad

Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic visited today the Temporary Centre for registration of migrants in Dimitrovgrad, where he was informed on the Centre’s capacities and efforts of deployed members of authorized services in admission of migrants. During the visit with the Mayor of Pirot District, representatives of Dimitrovgrad municipality and Ministry of Interior, problems the Centre is facing and the state of the accommodation for 200 migrants were discussed.

As pointed out by Minister Gasic, it is very important to ensure the power supply and enable the employees in the Community Health Centre, Ministry of Interior and the Secretariat for Refugees better working conditions and easier admission of migrants.

- Serbia has once again shown that all state bodies treat these people in the most humane way. All who come to Serbia can see how it has treated migrants in the past six months. Our job is to enable them within 72 hours to go to some of the reception centres or continue their journey to their desired destinations - Defence Minister said, and emphasized that all arriving migrants go through a thorough search and announced that there is a possibility of setting up control-diversion doors to assure the safety of the citizens of Serbia.

Responding to a journalist's question on the protection of state borders of neighbouring countries, erecting walls and deploying the armed forces, Minister said that Serbia will not raise fences, it has enough strength, resources and power for the Ministry of Interior, which is responsible for border control, to carry out tasks to fruition.

- We do not need to put fences to separate us from our neighbours, it is only necessary to do the work for which we are responsible as well and humanely as possible - Defence Minister said.

The capacity of the Temporary Centre for registration of migrants in Dimitrovgrad is 300 people. Members of the Ministry of Interior and the Red Cross have been deployed, and so far sufficient warm clothing and food has been provided.

After visiting the Centre, Defence Minister met with Mayor of Dimitrovgrad Zoran Djurov where they discussed the current sales of facilities from the Master Plan.

- The Ministry of Defence constantly encourages local governments which you can see in this example of good cooperation. The Municipality of Dimitrovgrad has bought our building for 2.6 million dinars including VAT, which had been out of use since 2006, and it had cost us a lot to maintain this facility. All the paid money will be used for resolving housing issue of members of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces - Defence Minister said.
Zoran Djurov thanked for the excellent cooperation between the defence system and the Municipality of Dimitrovgrad, and stressed that the purchase of the object Ostri vrh means a lot to the Municipality and its citizens.

- We'll solve the perennial problem with stray dogs by making a dog pound, and a part of the building will be allocated for the establishment of a regional Centre for disposal of animal waste – Mayor said.