The EU is responsible for Bosnia’s migrant problem and it should be the one solving it, Bosnia's Security Minister said on Thursday, adding that he does not agree with how the EU is behaving regarding the migrant crisis.
“I am absolutely dissatisfied and disappointed with the EU's behavior toward Bosnia regarding the migrant crisis. I openly tell them: Gentlemen from the EU, you have created this problem and now solve it!” Security Minister Dragan Mektic said at a press conference in Bihac, a town located in the Una-Sana Canton (USK), the northwestern border area most affected by the migrant crisis.
“Migrants come to us from Bulgaria and Greece and they want to continue toward the EU. We are part of the transit area and you are responsible,” the Minister said, referring to the EU.
Since the beginning of 2018, the number of migrants passing through Bosnia has drastically increased. The country became a significant transit point for the thousands of migrants after numerous surrounding countries closed their borders.
The migrants aim to reach EU countries through Bosnia and Croatia. Croatian border police, however, often turns them away from the border and back into Bosnia.
The USK is located near the area where most of the migrants try attempt to cross the border, so when they are turned away, they end up occupying public areas in Bihac and the surrounding area.
Mektic went to Bihac to meet with USK local authorities and discuss what can be done to help. The town’s representatives and members of its City Council had earlier announced they would protest in front of Bosnia’s Government building in Sarajevo on Friday, July 6, as the community cannot cope with the situation any longer.
The Minister said that Bosnia and the EU are having a hard time agreeing on how to solve the issue, and that the EU presents solutions he does not agree with, but also sets conditions in terms of the funds it gives Bosnia to tackle the issue.
“They even stand in our way regarding some solutions, as they set conditions. I tell them: You are not donors, this is your responsibility, you created a problem in Bosnia and we are just unlucky for being located here,” Mektic said.
“They want to coerce us into agreeing to some solutions which I am not sure are very good for Bosnia. I don't trust in their solutions anymore and we will increasingly turn to out own solutions, despite the fact that we are in a difficult situation,” he said, adding that should the EU allow the migrants to get into a situation in which they have nothing to eat because Bosnia does not have to financial capacities to care for them, “that is their (the EU's) problem.”
The solutions the EU is proposing are difficult for Bosnia, especially as the country is located at the EU's border, the Minister said. „We want to be a transit country and we will provide a human approach to these people, but we do not want to be a country to which the EU will close its doors and a victim of a problem that the EU has created,” he said.
