Police in Bosnia and Herzegovina's northwestern Una-Sana Canton on Wednesday shut down a camp for illegal migrants located in downtown Bihac, relocating its residents to the Lipa migrant camp about twenty kilometres from the town.
“As of tonight there is not one migrant in the Bira reception centre,” Una-Sana Canton interior minister Nermin Kljajic confirmed late Wednesday evening, adding that the relocation of migrants was conducted without any difficulties.
About eighty minors who were in the Bira centre have been relocated to a newly established migrant centre in the town while about one hundred adults have been relocated to the Lipa camp while some others have decided to make their way to the Croatian border, with a smaller group deciding to try their luck in Sarajevo.
Zatvoren prihvatni centar za migrante Bira u Bihacu @N1infoSA pic.twitter.com/tzvfvvPz0e
— Adisa Imamovic (@adisa_imamovic) September 30, 2020
Cantonal authorities decided earlier this week to shut down the Bira centre which has provided accommodation for more than a thousand migrants over the past two years.
Minister Kljajic underscored that it had become evident that having migrants in urban zones was not a good solution.
The next step is to shut down the Miral camp in Velika Kladusa.
There are currently some seven thousand illegal migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina and they are continuing to arrive across the poorly controlled border from Serbia and Montenegro.
