One of the ruling parties in Bosnia and the main Bosniak party, the Democratic Action Party (SDA), said on Thursday that the decision by Croatia to introduce a quarantine for Bosnian citizens entering the country was rash and short-sighted, while Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that this was a short-term measure.

The new border regime for anyone entering Croatia from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia came into force at midnight due to the surge in coronavirus cases in those countries. Anyone entering Croatia from these countries will have to go into compulsory self-isolation for fourteen days, with the exception of people in transit.

“Croatia's decision to introduce quarantine measures for citizens from Bosnia and Herzegovina during the tourism season, which practically prevents them from spending the summer on the Croatian coast, is rash and short-sighted,” SDA said.

“Croatia alone will suffer the damage from that decision as citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina spend hundreds of millions of euro every summer there,” SDA added.

Decision is short-term says Croatian Prime Minister

“It's not that we do not want communication, trade, open borders, on the contrary, we want that, it is in our interest, but at some particular moment you feel that the intensity (of the disease) is greater and naturally you have to have mechanisms to protect yourself,” said Plenkovic.

“If we see that the situation improves, we can change the measures whenever we want to,” he concluded.