The number of migrants who have been crossing into Bosnia’s territory in large groups since the beginning of the year has decreased with the proper placement of police forces at the border, Security Minister Dragan Mektic told reporters on Wednesday.

Bosnia became a significant transit point for the thousands of migrants trying to reach Western Europe after numerous surrounding countries closed their borders. The migrants aim to cross over to Croatia, but Croatian border police often turn them away from the border and back into Bosnia.  

The northwestern towns of Bihac, Cazin and Velika Kladusa, which are located in the Una Sana Canton (USK) and near Croatia’s border, and are strongly affected by the situation.  

Mektic said that until now 12,752 migrants entered Bosnia, that 12,337 of them expressed intent to seek asylum but that only 1,009 actually applied. Bosnia has sent 713 migrants back to the countries they came in from, he said.  

The Minister spoke to media following a meeting of the Operative Headquarters for migration, which Bosnia’s institutions recently formed to tackle the migrant situation.

He said that there are 77 migrants are currently being accommodated in Eastern Sarajevo, 57 in Delijas, and that another 213, most of whom are families with children, are staying in the ‘Sedra’ hotel in Cazin.

He said the migration issue is not a problem Bosnia is responsible for, but that the migrants are using the country as a transition point while the European Union countries where they want to go did not respond to the issue properly.  

Additional facilities for accommodating migrants are being prepared in the Usivak barracks in Hadzici, near Sarajevo, as well as in a student home in Bihac. He also said that the facilities of the Agrokomerc company in Velika Kladusa should be used for accommodating the migrants as well, but that there are certain problems with the local Government there, which does not allow water to be hooked up in the building.  

‘Them setting conditions according to which the water will be hooked up is not a problem, and we will meet those conditions, but nobody has the right to bar us from hooking it up,’ Mektic said.  

The number of migrants in USK has significantly decreased as well, and there are currently 1,500 of them there. They do not represent a security threat and they do not disturb locals in any way, he said.  

When reporters asked Mektic if migrants crossed over to Croatia although Croatian authorities said the border was fully closed, he said that it was very difficult to close down a 1,000 kilometre border and that the migrants probably found ways to leave Bosnia somehow.