(ANSA) - BELGRADE - Almost 36,000 migrants, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, have applied for asylum in Serbia since the beginning of the year. The news was reported by Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, who added that in the same period about 21,000 people have been prevented from entering the country illegally.

The flow of immigrants from the south is incessant, said the minister, according to whom it was decided to build a refugee centre in the area of Presevo, Albanian-majority region, on the border with Macedonia.

A strategy to stem illegal immigration - moving along the so-called 'Balkan route' from Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary to the EU countries of Western Europe - was the focus yesterday's meeting in Belgrade, attended by the Police Chiefs of Serbia, Hungary, Germany and Austria. 'Mixed patrols', composed of Serbian and Hungarian policemen, are operating on the borders between Serbia and Macedonia and between Serbia and Hungary. (ANSA).