The Prime Minister of Bosnia’s Una-Sana Canton (USK) urged the European Commission to help displace 200 minors from a migrant centre and assist in coordinating between various authorities dealing with the migrant crisis that has affected the western canton at the border to Croatia the most.
UKS Prime Minister Mustafa Ruznic thanked the EC for the help in handling the approximately 70,000 illegal migrants that have passed through the canton so far but argued that the results of their help are not visible enough on the ground.
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The canton’s burning problem is the inadequate accommodation of about 200 minors who have been placed into the temporary migrant centre “Bira” in the western city of Bihac, together with adults, the letter Ruznic sent to the EC said.
The “Bira” centre is privately owned and completely inadequate for the accommodation of minors who are physically and psychologically mistreated by the other migrants, he said.
The cantonal government has asked international partners like the IOM, UNHCR, UNICEF and DCR to help place the minors in other centres better equipped to accommodate them but nothing has been done, the letter said.
Ruznic also criticized the EU's Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina for not having done anything on the implementation of the Conclusions of the European Commission, passed during a visit of Bosnian officials to Brussels in June 2019.
According to those Conclusions, the burden of the migrant crisis was to be spread all over Bosnia as the migrants were to be accommodated throughout the country.
“However, the biggest burden of this crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina is being carried by citizens and institutions of the Una-Sana Canton, without adequate financial support from international partners and state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the letter said.
The prime minister noted that the canton has not even received help from the designated EU expert for migration, as “Mr. Nino Hartl has not once officially visited the Una-Sana Canton, nor has he visited the temporary centres to assess the situation,” it said.
The letter also said that Sattler has done nothing to implement the other provision of the June 2019 Conclusion – the closing down of migrant centres that are privately owned, first and foremost the “Bira” facility in Bihac, “Miral” in Velika Kladusa, and the opening of centres owned by the state.
“According to information available to us, the owners of those facilities have been paid enormous sums in rent and there is reason to suspect that there is some misuse of funds ongoing, as the rents are unrealistically high,” the letter said.
“We are asking you, therefore, to use your authority and help our efforts to displace the minors from the ‘Bira’ centre in Bihac” and to “assist in coordinating activities of relevant institutions in connection with the migrant crisis in our country,” the letter pleaded.
