The increased number of migrants in Bosnia’s Serb-majority region of Republika Srpska (RS) is a direct consequence of the refusal of Bosnian Serb Presidency member Milorad Dodik to send the army to the border with Serbia, his Bosnian Croat colleague in the Presidency, Zeljko Komsic, said on Thursday.
Dodik told N1 on Thursday that he will not respect the decision by Bosnia’s northwestern Una-Sana Canton, the area most affected by the migrant crisis in the country, to ban entry to migrants – most of whom arrive in the Canton from the territory of the RS entity.
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“We're trying to learn where the migrants are, which routes they're taking and we don't want them walking freely throughout the RS or exerting pressure on our locals and behaving in a violent way,” said Dodik. “Once we gather them at one spot, we're organizing transportation to wherever they want to go,” he added.
But Komsic argued that the increased number of migrants in the RS is due to Dodik’s refusal to sent the Armed Forces to the border with Serbia. Dodik had argued that he will not allow for a military force to stand between Serbia and Republika Srpska.
“At the session of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 11 last year, Dodik resolutely rejected such a possibility, which continued the illegal crossings of migrants from the territory of Serbia to the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Komsic.
He said that with this, Dodik “invited migrants to the RS.”
“As long as that is the case, and as long as Dodik refuses to engage Bosnia’s Armed Forces in order to prevent the illegal entry of migrants into Bosnia and Herzegovina and in both its entities, the migrants who are now in the RS entity should stay there,” Komsic said.
