To effectively tackle the migrant crisis, there must be better communication between local authorities in Bosnia’s cantons so they can jointly point out what must be done and express the obstacles they are facing to the state-level government, Sarajevo Canton Interior Minister Ismir Jusko said on Thursday.

Jusko’s statement came after he met with Nermin Kljajic, the Interior Minister of the northwestern Una-Sana Canton (USK) – the part of the country most affected by the migrant crisis – as well as the Police Commissioner there, Mujo Koricic.

The key conclusion from her meeting was that the two cantons are unable to respond to the migrant crisis by themselves.

“The migrant crisis is a common problem that we all face. We also have a problem with migrants in the Sarajevo Canton, but this problem is smaller than in the Una-Sana Canton. We need to have concrete and continuous communication between us, exchange experiences and take common positions which we would express to the state-level authorities,” Jusko said. 

“When we unite on this issue, we will certainly be more effective and efficient in our demands,” the minister said, adding that he had the opportunity to hear about a lot of concrete activities that were undertaken in the USK which could be applied in the Sarajevo Canton as well.

“We all have the same problem, and not only from the security aspect,” he said, strongly criticising the fact that there has been no meeting in a long time between “all actors from the security sector who could bring forward their proposals, experiences and messages to the state leadership.”

“Quite often in the past, it could be seen that the lack of concrete communication, especially at the security level, caused numerous problems on the ground. During this visit we agreed that meetings and the exchange of experiences will be much more frequent in the future both at the ministerial level and that of police administrations,” he said.

Jusko stressed that there is a huge problem regarding accommodation capacities for migrants in Canton Sarajevo and that expansion of those capacities in the Blazuj and Usivak migrant camps is needed since some 1,000 unaccommodated migrants are now moving across the Canton daily.