Accommodating the numerous migrants currently staying in the northwestern town of Bihac in the nearby village of Lipa would represent a crime as it would prevent some 250 Serbs who lived in the area before the 1992-1995 war from returning to their homes, the Committee for the protection of the rights of Serbs in Bosnia's Federation (FBiH) entity said on Wednesday.
The northwestern region where Bihac is located, the Una-Sana Canton (USK), has become a hotspot for migrants trying to reach the EU since neighbouring countries began closing their borders.
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In an effort to cope with the large influx of migrants, local authorities have set up several migrant reception camps in the area. Capacities are full, however, and many migrants are still staying on the streets among locals.
Bihac’s city council on Tuesday held a session where the establishment of another migrant camp in the mostly Serb-populated area of Lipa was discussed.
“We inform the public that nearly 250 former residents of Serb nationality from the village of Lipa from before the war have expressed a wish to return to the village of Lipa, but that their basic requirements for returning, electricity and other public services, were never secured,” the Committee said, adding that it is in possession of a list of those potential returnees.
The Committee also said that placing the migrants in an area which used to be completely inhabited by Serbs before the war would represent a crime according to FBiH law – illegal prevention of returns.
It said that it asked the Prosecutor’s Office in FBiH to question the head of the Bihac City Council, Davor Zupa, over setting the council session which could lead to committing the criminal act, as well as Bihac’s Mayor Suhret Fazlic “because he announced multiple times that the migrants will be placed in Lipa.”
