There are between 2,000 and 2,300 illegal migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is a marked decrease from July, Bosnia's Security Minister Dragan Mektic said in Banja Luka on Friday.

According to Bosnian police agencies, about 10,800 illegal migrants entered the country this year by August 15.

Illegal migration is under full control and the decrease in the flow is a result of tighter border control, as thousands of migrants whose goal is to go west towards Europe across Bosnia are concentrated in Serbia, Mektic told reporters.

“We are putting these migrations under control and are safely managing them,” Mektic said.

He said that in the future migrants would be accommodated in centres to be set up in the cities of Bihac, Velika Kladusa, and Cazin.

Mektic went on to say that Croatian police had not provided complete data when they said that 2,500 migrants had been caught this year in attempts to illegally enter the country from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He indirectly claimed that the real figure was higher, up to 8,000.

“Either they (Croatian police) have not discovered them, or they haven’t released the correct numbers,” Mektic said.

He added that Bosnian police were conducting intensive checks to find illegal migrants involved in crime and that two persons involved in muggings and drug trafficking were arrested in a raid in the Bihac area on Thursday.

He added that over 30 persons had been arrested for trafficking migrants across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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