prijava
SARAJEVO, June 12 (FENA) - Director of the Foreigners’ Affairs Service Slobodan Ujić confirmed today that since the end of last year to present day, the Service processed 6,257 migrants who entered Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 5,635 of them sought international protection.
Ujić explained that they illegally cross the border from the territory of Serbia and Montenegro, and these are migrants from high risk countries who use BiH as a transit route on their way to the countries of Western Europe.
"These are cases of mixed migration, where only 20 percent of them are refugees, and the rest are economic migrants, among whom there are many families with children who come from 45 different countries," Ujić told reporters in Sarajevo.
Considering the number of migrants who entered BiH in the past few months, Ujić emphasized that BiH is also faced with humanitarian and security challenges of migrant situation, especially emphasizing that there is evident shortage of accommodation capacities.
“The Operational HQ for the migrant issue is working towards solving this problem in the next 15 days, precisely the situation in the Sarajevo Canton that should be fully resolved, since the Immigration Center of the Foreigners’ Affairs Service and the Asylum Center Salakovac are in operation, while the Ušivak barracks should soon be put into operation,” explained Ujić.
When it comes to the Una-Sana Canton, where there are between 800 and 1,200 registered, migrants, as the numbers change each day, their accommodation has not been resolved yet, and Ujić added that they could be accommodated in the former Agrokomerc facility.
He also commented on the announcements by the neighboring countries about their plans to close the borders, especially singling out Austria's announcement of the complete closure of the border and if this happens, Slovenia announced it would do the same, and we have information that Croatia is also considering this option.
“The only adequate response to this would be to strengthen border control and send additional forces to the border with our eastern neighbors, and in the event of closing the borders, we will have no other option but to close the border with Serbia and Montenegro,” stressed Ujić.
He underlined that the daily influx of migrants is between 65 and 80 who are crossing the border in smaller or larger groups and while some are leaving BiH others are arriving, and the number of migrants in the country changes constantly.
Ujić concluded that regardless of the complexity of the situation with the increased influx of migrants, the Foreigners’ Affairs Service in cooperation with other institutions (Border Police, Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA), State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and the competent entity institutions) still has the situation under control.
(FENA) S. R.
