Police arrested on Thursday Morrocan migrant Hicham Aglaras, one of the suspects in the murder of a local young man in Sarajevo’s Ilidza neighbourhood two days ago.
The 34-year-old migrant already has a criminal record in Bosnia. He was convicted for possession of illicit drugs and received a suspended four-month prison sentence.
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According to police, Aglaras and two other migrants killed Jasmin Berovic and gravely injured two other locals in a brawl.
Police are still searching for the other two suspects and all police agencies across the country, as well as Bosnia’s intelligence agency, are involved in the manhunt.
The tragedy prompted the Security Commission of the Canton Sarajevo (KS) Assembly to hold a session on Thursday to discuss the security situation in the KS since the number of violent crimes committed by migrants moving freely on the streets has drastically increased.
The Security Commission urged the Ministry of Security to carry out the prescribed procedures and organizational patterns regarding the presence of migrants in the country so that at least the same standards applied toward the local population are applied toward the migrants. It also should urgently start applying the existing regulations concerning deportations of migrants who are found to have violated the law, as well as passing new regulations that would limit their movement at certain times.
The Commission concluded that protocols should be defined that would be applied regarding the lack of personal documents and temporary documents issued by Bosnian authorities. The Commission also called on the defence and security ministries to cooperate in finding available facilities in the country and to proportionally move the migrants from urban areas to new locations for security and epidemiological reasons.
Police forces have been asked to urgently and thoroughly implement all regulations regarding the identification of migrants, limit their movement in accordance with recommendations of the pandemic crisis staff and take steps to find individuals and groups of migrants who possess weapons.
The KS Interior Minister, Ismir Jusko, spoke to N1 as the police operation was ongoing.
“It was only a matter of time when such a crime would happen,” he said, adding that he has been warning state-level authorities about the situation and asking for Bosnia’s eastern border to be better protected.
He also urged authorities to start the process of deporting all those who have no right to be in Bosnia according to law.
“Exclusively state authorities are those that manage the migrant crisis,” he said, adding that the cantons suffer the consequences of their inaction.
“Locals in Ilidza and Hadzici suffer huge consequences. The young man who was killed was killed only because he was helping his brother protect their property,” he said.
“This is a sign that we will have a situation where citizens will take justice into their own hands,” he warned.
Jusko explained that the migrants who are allowed to move freely can “enter any shop and buy a knife.”
“This is the moment for the leaders of this country to be resolute. At this moment, the crisis is managing them, they are not managing the crisis,” he stressed.
He explained that many of the migrants are “very well connected people, have more than enough money, have the latest models of mobile phones with maps for transiting through a country toward their destination.”
Meanwhile, locals gathered for a protest in the suburb of Hadzici due to the deteriorated security situation, mostly because the migrant centres Usivak and Blazuj are nearby.
“There is a fear of migrants present in Hadzici,” one of the locals told N1 at the protest.
Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) entity currently has a curfew in place, starting at 11 pm. However, according to the protester who spoke to N1, “here the curfew begins at 7 pm for us, just as the sun sets.”
“People are afraid to go out, only those who have the courage do so and the rest are locked in their homes, they are afraid of what could happen,” he said, adding that the migrants freely moving through the suburb carry knives with them.
“How would it be possible to live normally in such an environment? There are also nice migrants, but there are those who brought too much crime with them,” he said, adding that Ilidza and Hadzici have suffered the biggest consequences of the problem and that “if each municipality would take in 100 migrants, we would not have this problem.”
A local young woman at the protest told N1 that she does not feel safe as she lives on the path leading up to one of the migrant camps.
“I have empathy towards them, they have rarely ever spoken to me and I rarely had a chance to have any contact with them. I do fear them, what if they attack me, how would I defend myself? These are young men my age, I hoped that this situation would be resolved but how can I change anything about it by myself?” she said.
“We want to send a message to authorities at all government levels to protect our rights and secure living conditions for the migrants. They deserve to live, but we also have a right to move freely,” she concluded.
