Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Council of Ministers (CoM) Chairman Denis Zvizdic said the number of migrants had noticeably increased in the past month. During Bosnia and Herzegovina’s House of Representatives session, he said that most migrants are coming from Syria (around 30 percent), Pakistan (15 percent), Libya (13 percent) Afghanistan and Iran.

He familiarized the Representatives that most entries were recorded at the border with Serbia, Montenegro and lately with Croatia.

He added that the CoM adopted the Draft Plan of Urgent Measures which will be amended after the Operative Staff meeting and in line with suggestions from other levels of Government in the country.

“The Plan will be activated immediately in the CoM’s capacity and in line with the budget, organizational, staff and other capacities. This means that a certain number of police officers from other police agencies will be reassigned immediately to the Border Police and deployed to unofficial border-crossings in Bosnia”, said Zvizdić.

The Plan aims to stop the inflow of migrants from any part of the Bosnian border which is not an official State border crossing between Montenegro and Bosnia and between Serbia and Bosnia.

“Others will be stopped and returned, institutionally and physically. We will act in three directions. The first is to maintain the humaneness, considering the past Bosnia and its citizens had. The second is to maintain the safety and security in the country and the third is to respect our laws and standards arising from international conventions to which Bosnia is a signatory state,” Zvizdic added.

He confirmed that Bosnia will send diplomatic notes to Serbia and Montenegro, familiarizing them with the fact that Bosnian authorities are aware of the situation in those two countries, that migrant settlements and centres are being dismantled and migrants are being sent to Bosnia institutionally and via criminal groups. Bosnia will ask Serbia and Montenegro to stop these activities.

As far as the migrants on the territory of the Canton of Sarajevo and the Una-Sana Canton are concerned, Zvizdic confirmed that they will be resettled to appropriate centres.