Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Security Minister Dragan Mektic said a total of 437 migrants submitted their asylum requests over the past month but none were approved.
“The politicians tend to abuse the migrant situation in various ways. They wish to produce panic and fear among the citizens. They speak of asylums and settling of migrants in Bosnia, but no migrant was approved an asylum request. I will report on this every week,” Mektic said.
He stated that some 350 migrants entered the country illegally along a yet unknown spot in the border. The authorities failed to identify the route through which they entered the country, but this issue will be resolved during Wednesday.
The Border Police agents will also be joined by additional 75 police officers to help control the border. Mektic said that the Usivak Barracks in Hadzici near Sarajevo should be handed over to the Security Ministry in the next couple of days, which will be used as an asylum centre.
He announced a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity Fadil Novalic and the Prime Minister of Una-Sana Canton Husein Rosic to resolve the complex migrant situation in that canton where some 2,000 migrants are living in various abandoned houses and one temporary asylum centre.
“We don’t have an adequate response when it comes to an asylum centre. We don’t have a single place where to house them and offer them all the necessary services. This could be done in Agrokomerc company’s facilities (in the Una-Sana Canton), which belong to the FBiH Government. If we could get those facilities, we would form a comprehensive asylum centre there,” Mektic confirmed.
He added that some of the migrants are living in people’s houses who offered them shelter and living quarters. The Ministry’s aim is to gather all migrants into one asylum centre from which they would not be able to leave without Government’s knowledge.
