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ZAGREB, February 3 (FENA) - During his official visit to Zagreb, BiH Security Minister Fahrudin Radončić said that the issue of migrant crisis can no longer be viewed solely as a humanitarian issue.
In Zagreb, Minister Radončić met with Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović, and informed him about the extent of the migrant crisis.
“I have asked for help from my Croatian colleagues to inform our EU friends that the issue of the migrant crisis is no longer just a humanitarian issue. This is no longer a refugee crisis,” Radončić said after the meeting.
According to him, the largest number of migrants comes from Pakistan, Algeria, Morocco. He added that BIH security agencies and intelligence services are at capacity limit.
“We have received the returnees from Syria and other fronts, we have received an extremely large number of migrants, and the process of their identification is very difficult. Somebody in BiH has slept through the three years of the migrant crisis, we did not change laws, by-laws, and the budgets for our agencies remained the same. No new border police officers have been received, not to mention other details that are not public,” Radončić warned, adding that one border police officer in BiH keeps 25 kilometers of the border.
The BiH Minister of Security said he expects the Republic of Croatia to understand and help.
“It is our appeal, and we really rely on the extraordinary cooperation with the Republic of Croatia and its understanding of the problem that BiH is facing with, to begin with serious lobbying and understanding of the migrant crisis as primarily a security crisis, not a humanitarian one. 93 percent of the assistance we received from certain EU countries goes to the humanitarian aspect, and only seven percent to the security,” he said.
Božinović said that in today's world, almost all security challenges are transnational and that cross-border cooperation is a necessity.
He stressed that Croatia had arrested a thousand smugglers last year and that it is "one of the fastest growing forms of organized crime in this region"
“95 people have been arrested since the beginning of the year. This is certainly one area of cooperation that we need to further strengthen with relevant services within BiH. We cannot allow smugglers to cooperate better with each other, and that our cooperation is delayed,” said the Croatian Minister.
Božinović said enhanced cooperation has been agreed between BiH and the Croatian border police, as well as a more consistent and engaged implementation of the agreements that exist between the two countries.
“First of all, I am referring to the Readmission Agreement, especially the one that is intended for the return and readmission of persons who illegally reside in the national territory of one of the countries,” said Božinović.
Minister Božinović said that the Republic of Croatia would advocate that most of the assistance coming from the European Union be directed towards the specific needs of BiH security services.
“By strengthening the capacities of the security and border services of all countries along this route, we are approaching one of the priorities of the European Commission, which is stronger control and surveillance of the external borders of the European Union,” concluded Božinović.
(FENA) A. B.
