The Pakistan Embassy in Bosnia is aware of the situation of the illegal migrants from many countries including Pakistan who gathered in Bosnia's northern parts, waiting to cross into Croatia and then to Western Europe, the Embassy told N1 Thursday, adding that they are doing everything to help their nationals return to Pakistan.

“However, we have to keep in mind that these are economic migrants who have travelled to Bosnia & Herzegovina after paying thousands of dollars to human smugglers and often travelling on an average from one to three years and none of these migrants want to go back to Pakistan,” the Embassy said.

They say that the Embassy frequently try to contact migrants living in different camps and extends all possible assistance for their voluntary return to Pakistan.

“In recent past 44 Pakistanis have been repatriated to Pakistan with the help of the International Organization for Migration. Besides, the Embassy provides all possible support for completing legal and logistic formalities to transport dead bodies of Pakistani migrants. So far 08 dead bodies have been transported to Pakistan,” they said.

According to them, they also wrote to competent Ministries in Pakistan to crack down on human smuggling networks and increase surveillance of Pakistan-Iran borders to eliminate human smuggling.

“We understand the gravity of the situation and hope that the International community, especially EU would come forward to provide humanitarian assistance to these migrants and would be able to find a suitable solution to this issue which has consequences for Bosnia & Herzegovina and its people,” the Embassy of Pakistan concluded.

 Last year, 25,000 migrants entered the country and competent authorities estimate that there are around 9,000 of them in the country right now.

Migrants started flocking in Bosnia after Bulgaria and Hungary imposed strict border controls and stopped migrants from entering their country, effectively blocking the migrants’ “Balkan route.”

They have no wish of staying in Bosnia or eastern EU member states, though, but want to continue their path to Western EU states like Germany, France and Austria, hoping to find a better life.

Most of them are from Pakistan (36,3 percent), Bangladesh (9,2 percent) and Iraq (8,8 prcent), Syria (8,7 percent) and Afghanistan (7,5 percent).