The European Union has paid some 154 million Bosnian Marks (about 79 million euros) since 2018 to international organisations to help Bosnia manage the migrant crisis and more than 100 million has already been spent, so it is unclear why the migrants in the country are living in such bad conditions.

The EU transferred the money to the accounts of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and its partners, the UNICEF, UNHCR and the Danish Refugee Council. The IOM still has more than 50 million Bosnian Marks on its account to spend until July 2021.

According to EC Spokesperson Balazs Ujvari, the money is not given to governments but always to humanitarian organisations.

The IOM used seven million Bosnian Marks of the money it received to procure specialized vehicles, equipment, uniforms for the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs, the Border Police, the Ministry of the Interior of the Una-Sana Canton (USK), the area in Bosnia most affected by the migrant crisis.

“The problem is that the money was given to IOM and the UNHCR, and they say this was to help to BiH. And then in the Report, you see that a third of that money goes to servicing the salaries of the administration of those same people who gave the money, meaning foreigners,” said Damir Masic, a member of Bosnia’s parliamentary commission for security.

“And now you have an absurd situation, 240 very nice, expensive containers that are adequate for temporary accommodation which are located in Bira and the state has no authority to transfer them from one location to another, so they sit there empty while people are trying to accommodate those people in tents,” he said.

Administrative costs roughly amounted to some 2.6 million Bosnian marks. The establishment of migrant reception centres cost about 14 million Bosnian marks.
According to the IOM, most of the money went to humanitarian aid for migrants, about 40 million Bosnian marks.