Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Council of Ministers (CoM) Chairman Denis Zvizdic said the number of migrants had noticeably increased in the past month. During Bosnia’s House of Representatives session on Thursday, he said that most incoming migrants come from Syria (30 percent), Pakistan (15 percent), Libya (13 percent), Afghanistan, and Iran.

He told the representatives that most entries of migrants were recorded on Bosnia’s eastern border with Serbia, Montenegro, and also lately with Croatia.

He added that the CoM adopted the Draft Plan of Urgent Measures which will be amended after the Operative Staff meeting and in line with suggestions from other levels of government in the country.

“The Plan will be activated immediately in the CoM’s capacity and in line with the budget, organisational, staffing, and other capacities. This means that a certain number of police officers from other police agencies will be re-assigned immediately to the Border Police, and deployed to patrol unofficial border crossings in Bosnia”, said Zvizdic.

The Plan aims to stop the inflow of migrants from any part of the Bosnian border which is not an official border crossing between Montenegro and Bosnia, and between Serbia and Bosnia.

“Others will be stopped and returned, institutionally and physically. We will act in three ways. The first is to maintain humane treatment, considering the past Bosnia and its citizens had. The second is to maintain the safety and security in the country, and the third is to respect our laws and standards arising from international conventions to which Bosnia is a signatory state,” Zvizdic added.

He confirmed that Bosnia will send diplomatic notes to Serbia and Montenegro, telling them that Bosnian authorities are aware of the situation in those two countries, that migrant settlements and centres are being dismantled, and that migrants are being sent to Bosnia institutionally, and via criminal groups. Bosnia will ask Serbia and Montenegro to stop these activities.

As far as the migrants on the territory of the Canton of Sarajevo and the Una-Sana Canton are concerned, Zvizdic confirmed that they would be resettled to appropriate centres.

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