Bosnian Border Police urgently needed to hire more staff or to have a number of police officers transferred from other to this law enforcement agency in order to respond to the dramatic increase in the number of migrants in the country, Border Police Director Zoran Galic said on Saturday.

Galic was quoted as saying that he asked the state authorities to approve employment of 526 border police officers. According to him, this agency needed additional staff to enhance the control of Bosnia’s border with Serbia and Montenegro.

The Border Police earlier reported that more than 1,200 migrants were discovered in the attempt of or after entering Bosnia. Out of this number, some 400 illegal migrants were registered only in April, three times more than in January 2018. 

Galic warned that the Border Police prevented nearly 2,000 migrants from entering the country, adding that there were many children and women as well as those who needed extra care among those who found temporary shelter in Bosnia.

A significant number of migrants who did not manage to enter Croatia and other EU countries sought asylum in Bosnia. The state authorities scheduled a meeting for Monday to discuss the issue of migrants.