inthemix | Lifestyle | Serbian minister's plan to import brides

A Serbian Minister has announced he’s seeking to import over 100,000 brides from countries including Ukraine, Russia and the Far East for Serbia’s surplus of bachelors, who he said number up to 250,000 scattered throughout rural villages. Social affairs minister Zeljko Vasiljevic said he’s hoping to revitalise ‘remote and dying’ Serbian villages under the scheme, and suggested Asian brides could prove particularly popular. “There is a lot of potential in brides from Cambodia, Laos, Burma and Vietnam. Girls from those countries have a tradition of bearing children,” he told reporters. “And those girls are also good at agricultural work,” he added.

However, Serbia’s Labour Minister Rasim Ljajić later apologised for Mr Vasiljevic’s comments and said the State Secretary was unauthorised to discuss demographics.”This is not the ministry’s position, nor has anyone reviewed such options,” he told Beta news agency. “I will not tolerate such behaviour that offends the public at home and abroad, while the ministry has suffered huge damage. People have been calling in all day, asking if the state is involved in people trafficking,” he complained (b92.net news).

Meanwhile in Australia demographic experts have said the country has the opposite problem and is suffering from a ‘man drought’, with over 100,000 more females than males according to census figures. Demographer Bernard Salt told the BBC the problem is most acute in major coastal cities (presumably referring to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth) and has arisen because of so many Aussie blokes travelling overseas. “If you go into the United Arab Emirates census you’ll find there is around 12,000 Australians living in Dubai, mostly male, mostly in the 25 to 34-year age group,” he said. “Here is an example of one country that has drawn out a specific age demographic out of Australia which has contributed to the ‘man drought’.”