Locals in the villages in the southeastern municipality of Bileca told N1 on Monday that they live in fear for months already since migrants passing through the area have been breaking into their homes and looting their property.

A week earlier, a local found a group of migrants in his home and killed one of them.

Locals organised a protest gathering on Sunday, demanding that all levels of government in the country get engaged in finding ways to tackle the issue. They told N1 that they have been struggling with “an onslaught” of migrants.

With the nights getting colder and a lack of food, the migrants find ways to get by. Groups of them often gather at some house in Bileca seeking shelter and food.

But they do not only seek that in abandoned houses.

“They have broken in the Krstace local administration office three times so far, imagine the scene when you come to work and you see that the drawers have been taken apart, that the windows are broken, it is a catastrophe,” said Djordje Jeftovic, a registrar working in the office.

“They wake us in the night, at 2, 3 o'clock, banging on the door. Those who are younger among us can somehow put up with it, but what can these older people do about it?” asked Radoslav Vujinovic, from the village Simiova.

“People can’t remain in their houses at all times, they have to go to work. But if I go a 100 metres away from my house, he (a migrant) will come in and take everything he needs,” he said.

Locals say that the migrants have already completely devastated 17 family homes.

The migrants daily pass by the house of Bojana Samardzic, an elderly woman living in Krstace, who told N1 the migrants mostly ask her for food. She said she once found a group of them sitting in her living room.

“They started one fire in the baking oven, another one in a cooking pot, they could have set the house on fire. They already burned down one abandoned house here. My family asked me if I wanted a shotgun, I said no, I never killed anyone, even if they end up slaughtering me,” she said.

Some of the locals have put up signs on their homes saying ‘Danger, no entry’.

N1 also spoke to some of the migrants as well. One of them was a 20-year-old Moroccan who was passing through the village of Krstace in Bileca at the time of reporting.

With his last 50 euros in his pocket, he said he is walking toward his goal for days already.

“I'm going to Stolac, and then by bus to Mostar, then to Sarajevo, Croatia, Slovenia, and I hope that I will make it to Italy alive and well,” he told N1.

According to Bileca municipal mayor Miljan Aleksic, the problem should have been addressed a lot earlier.

“It would be best if would provide them with buses that would take them to Stolac, and a police checkpoint should be set up so that villagers feel as safe as possible, so the officers can arrive within five minutes when locals say they have been attacked,” he stressed.

Aleksic scheduled an extraordinary session on the issue on Thursday, describing the situation as “alarming.”