Bosnia’s Security Minister Dragan Mektic reiterated, Wednesday, that Bosnia will not allow the formation of any migrant reception centre or camp on its territory. He confirmed that the European Commission refused to provide any funds for the renovation of ‘Agrokomerc’ company’s facilities and their transformation into a migrant centre.
“Camps and reception centres are out of the question! I don’t care about anybody’s money, not even the EU’s money – refugee camps will not be built in Bosnia. I was clear on that. Some officials are mentioning millions, but we still haven’t received a penny to fix the fence where the migrants are based,” Mektic said.
He noted he was informed by the European Commission that they do not intend to finance the renovation of the ‘Agrokomerc’ company’s facilities to transform them into a temporary migrant centre for migrants flocking in the Una-Sana Canton’s towns of Bihac and Velika Kladusa.
“We will not give up on the ‘Agrokomerc’ project because it is a quality solution. They said they will not finance the renovation because the centre is too close to the EU border, to which I said we will go ahead with the project anyway,” Mektic confirmed. “This week we will begin setting tents which will be equipped with air-conditioning and heating, and then we’ll begin working on the ‘Agrokomerc’ buildings themselves. We will feed them (the migrants) for as long as we can, if someone thinks they should die here, they’re mistaken. I disagree with the principle that the centre is too close to the EU border. There is a centre in Sid, Serbia which is also close to the Croatian border, but the problem is the centre in Bosnia, not the one in Serbia.”
This was Mektic’s second press conference in two days. On Tuesday, he said that Bosnia will not allow other countries to make it into an ‘asylum reception centre.’
