Dodik for Belgrade media: RS has no space to accept migrants

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Only the naive believe that Bosnia and Herzegovina has been accidentally opened to migrants at this moment, the Republika Srpska (RS) entity has no room for centres that would accommodate migrants, said RS President Milorad Dodik.

Speaking for Belgrade-based daily newspaper Politika, which will be fully published on Sunday, Dodik said that security bodies of the RS, Bosnia’s Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity, are closely following the movement of migrants through its territory.

According to Bosnia’s state-level institutions and agencies, the number of migrants passing through the country has significantly increased since the beginning of this year. To obey the procedures, migrants are registering and applying for asylum in Bosnia. However, the statistics show that significant percentage of those who applied have already left the country, heading towards their final destinations in western Europe.

Dodik deems that the many are pretending not to see how migrants are actually stuck in Bosnia, as the borders of the neighbourly Croatia, as well as Slovenia, Hungary and Austria are “hermetically closed.”

“Only we are supposed to pretend to be naive and welcome them and pretend to be humane. We are humane but we also have our own lives and our way of life should be defended, instead of being a part of historic deceit, whose consequences we will discuss in ten years,” said Dodik.

He also warned that after the three-year status of asylum-seeker, the migrants get entitled to the right to the citizenship, “which enables them to participate in political and public life, like other citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”