Politicians should refrain from commenting the migrant crisis that has hit Bosnia as they are abusing the issue for election campaign purposes, Security Minister Dragan Mektic said on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters after the weekly meeting of the Operational Headquarters, which is made up of government agencies and is tasked with dealing with the migrant crisis in Bosnia, Mektic criticized a request made a day before by a member of the Municipality Council of northwestern Velika Kladusa, a town close to the Croatian border where hundreds of migrants are stuck.
Elvira Abdic-Jelenovic called on the government to declare a state of war.
“Yesterday I heard a nonsense,” Mektic said.
“Mrs. Abdic requested for a state of war to be declared on Bosnian territory. Just think about what kind of politicians we are sitting with here as we try to solve this problem,” he said.
Mektic said he recently attended a conference in Brussels where the flow of migrants was being discussed, but that nothing special happened there.
“The conclusions were: this problem will continue, there is no magic wand for this problem and we need to strengthen our border protection,” he said.
The crisis is a European Union problem, he said, as most of the migrants come into the region from two EU member states, Greece an Bulgaria. He also pointed out that these migrations involve criminal activity, such as human trafficking and smuggling.
“I’m asking police agencies to be more engaged on the entire route. This has become a serious business that brings in more profit than drug trafficking,” he said.
“Individuals from within migrant groups have started to get involved in smuggling,” he said.
Bosnia has sent 575 migrants back to countries they came from based on the readmission procedure, he said, adding that the Security Ministry will provide two facilities to accommodate the migrants – the Usivak barracks in Hadzici and the ‘Agrokomerc’ building.
“We will immediately start creating conditions for both centres to be functional. We will not need a lot of time for this. We have provided tents, sanitary containers, we have everything,” he said, adding that the Ministry will also provide security for those facilities.
“I am not saying we are prepared to stop these migrations, because someone would have done this before us. We engaged a large number of police officers, I hope it will contribute to solving the problem. But, I must admit, the pressure is getting stronger and stronger,” he said.
