Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski said at a press conference Thursday marking the government’s first 100 days in office that important achievements had been made in both the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and the fight against crime and corruption.

“After returning at the helm of the Interior Ministry (MoI), I pledged to pick up where left off – in establishing a strong institution that will guarantee order, security and rule of law, and in establishing police forces to protect laws as quality service in the interest of all citizens,” said Spasovski, who served as caretaker prime minister since early 2020 until the July 15 early parliamentary polls.

According to him, other achievements of the MoI in the past 100 days included combat against drug trafficking and organized crime gangs, illegal arms trafficking, prevention of illegal migration and busting of migrant and human trafficking rings.

Spasovski vowed his ministry in the coming period would be more committed to implementing European standards in the law enforcement institutions in line with the government’s efforts to ‘bring Europe at home.’

As regards the fight against serious crime, he mentioned the busting of a ISIS terrorist cell, which was active in the country, and the arrest of a group of men from the town of Vinica, which sold fake coronavirus tests.

“The fight to prevent the new virus from spreading has been a priority. The crisis has motivated us more to lead the country toward ending it with as little as possible consequences,” Spasovski said, recalling that the Ministry recently had filed over 250 charges against people for violating the self-isolating order and had conducted nearly 37,000 controls of businesses, including hospitality businesses.

At the news conference, Minister Spasovski commended the Ministry and the competent bodies for their important results in the fight against illegal arms trade, i.e. the number of arms and ammunition confiscations have been increased compared to last year.

The police, according to him, have been very active in curbing illegal migration and arresting migrant smuggles and human traffickers.

The national unit for busting groups of migrant smugglers, Spasovski said, had arrested at total of 18 men, who were members of two groups. They are charged with smuggling nearly 250 migrants from the Middle East to North Macedonia via Greece.

“Reforms in the security sector, for which we have been recognized by our international partners, are resuming. We will boost the tempo of implementation even further so as to establish effective police forces,” Minister Spasovski told the news conference.