Assistant Interior Minister Zarko Katic said that none of the applicants had provided evidence to support their claims of being persecuted in their own countries on religious, racial, ethnic or political grounds.
Eighty per cent of the asylum seekers said they had left their country for economic reasons, whereas the rest of them claimed they were persecuted, but could not prove it, Katic said.
Asked why the Kurds from Turkey, Iran or Iraq had to prove that they were being persecuted in their country, the assistant minister said that asylum could not be granted to all the Kurds because that would undermine the asylum granting system.
Asked about the status of victims of human trafficking, Katic said that none of them had been granted asylum so far because of flaws in the Asylum Act. Such people are granted a one-year humanitarian stay visa with the possibility of extension, and procedure for that category of asylum seekers will be determined through amendments to the Asylum Act and the Aliens Act before the end of this year.
The committee also supported a proposal for the ratification of the European Convention on Nationality.