Belgrade: Serbian Labor Minister Rasim Ljajic yesterday apologized for recent comments made by a state secretary with his ministry, Zeljko Vasiljevic. The State Secretary had recently stated that Serbia should “import” women from Asia, in order to provide bachelors in some rural areas of the country with wives.

On Monday, Ljajic said, “This is not the ministry’s position, nor has anyone reviewed such options. The demographic policy is not within State Secretary Vasiljevic’s scope of work.”

He clarified that the incident will be discussed with the ruling coalition partners, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), on whose ticket Vasiljevic, the leader of the Veterans Movement, got appointed to a state administration job.

The Labor Minister said, “I will not tolerate such behavior 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.”

Last week, Vasiljevic has said that Serbia should “import more than 100,000 women from Asia”, to thus “solve the demographic problem”, and also advised that a state institution should be implementing this “project”.