The mayor of the town of Vojnic near the Croatia-Bosnia border, Nebojsa Andric, and the Bridge party's parliamentary deputy, Zvonimir Troskot, on Saturday criticised the government over the migrant crisis and illegal entries by irregular migrants from BiH to Croatia.

Troskot told a news conference in Vojnic that the territorial sovereignty of Croatia had been violated and that it was necessary to deploy army troops along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mayor Andric also demanded the arrival of soldiers at the border, citing claims by a police official in BiH’s Una-Sana Canton that a group of Afghan migrants, armed with firearms, has been active in the border area and that it extorts money from the other migrants and steals their belongings and then hides from Bosnia’s police in Croatia’s territory.

We demand the immediate closure of the border and the restoration of safety and security in our town, said Andric, adding that in light of reports of shooting incidents at the border and the above-mentioned armed group, residents did not feel safe.

He complained about the treatment of Bosnia Croats, some of whom are his relatives, who, he says, must wait for hours to legally cross the border and cannot bring “even a sandwich” into Croatia and who are exposed to maltreatment at the border crossings.

Andric thus responded to the previous statement by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic that Croatia would not build walls and barriers towards the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Andric, who used to be a member of the ruling HDZ party, said today that he was no longer a member of any political party.

Troskot claimed that in a recent incident, migrants opened fire at the Croatian special police, and accused the prime minister and interior minister of a lukewarm response to the developments at the border, calling them “wimps”.

The Bridge lawmaker called on local communities along the border to organise on their own the defence of their areas as they will not receive support from politicians.

He said that it would be wrong for geo-strategic reasons to build a centre for the reception of illegal migrants at Krnjak in Karlovac County.