The decision to send a convoy of buses carrying migrants towards the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNK) was not approved by the Council of Ministers, and occurred without prior agreement with the local institutions in Mostar, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said in a press release in regard to the stopping of the convoy by HNK police officers.
According to state Security Minister, Dragan Mektic, state institutions had organized the transport of some 270 migrants from Sarajevo to a refugee centre in Salakovac, located in the HNK, in the Mostar area.
HNK police officers, however, stopped the buses, insisting they return to Sarajevo.
The buses have meanwhile arrived at their destination, but the developments had caused outrage among state officials.
Mektic said the HNK Interior Ministry was informed of the migrant convoy a day earlier, therefore the commissioner who ordered the interception of the buses had blocked the implementation of a decision made by state-level institutions.
The HDZ, however, claims the relevant institutions in Mostar were not informed and the Council of Ministers did not make such a decision.
“We consider such an act illegal and one-sided, regardless of who discussed it and how, up until the point when the only competent state governmental body, the Council of Ministers, in agreement with Cantonal and city authorities makes such a decision,” the party said in a statement.
The HDZ said that the decision to send the migrants to Salakovac was made by “irresponsible individuals within the Security Ministry and the Ministry of Displaced Persons and Refugees”, and that “such a scenario was though up in order to destabilize the area”.
“It is well known that the arrival of migrants in most areas results in unrest, an increase in robberies of homes and forcible occupation of empty residence buildings, as well as possible conflicts with the local population,” the party wrote, adding that the centre in Salakovac was not intended to accommodate persons without a determined status or identity.
