Residents of Bosnia’s north-western town of Bihac bordering Croatia staged a protest Saturday evening, asking the competent authorities to relocate migrant centres out of the city. They said the protest was not aimed against the migrants but against the inefficient government.

“Everyone must know we’re not protesting against those people but against our political leaders, who ignore us all together and leaving in problems. We’re simply asking all competent institutions to get fully involved in solving the current situation,” said a representative of the group of citizens, Senad Zanacic.

The Una-Sana Canton, a north-western Bosnian region, has become a hotspot for migrants who had entered the country through its eastern borders in an attempt to reach the European Union, their final destination. Although it is hard to assess the exact number of migrants in the Una-Sana Canton, due to their constant movement, the local institutions and international humanitarian organisations claim more than 20,000 mostly Middle Eastern migrants entered the country this year.

The local population in the region started organising peaceful gatherings, protesting the further influx of migrants and asking the state institutions to solve the issue. The citizens stressed their safety was in jeopardy owing to frequent incidents amongst the migrants and burglaries involving them.

“We insist on disabling the influx of new migrants to the Una-Sana Canton. We fully support the cantonal government and police in that”, said Sej Ramic, one of the organisers of the protest. He urged the bus and train operators to stop bringing “persons without any documents” to the canton.

Ramic emphasised the citizens were dissatisfied with the current engagement of the International Organisation for Migrations (IOM) in this problem.

“We don’t want their inefficiency and non-transparency but a help in line with the European Union laws. Nowhere in Europe are the reception centres formed within 20 kilometres from the border with the European Union except in Bihac and Velika Kladusa,” Ramic said, adding this was a question for the IOM.

The citizens also urged Bosnia’s Security Ministry and other state institutions in charge to “fully protect the state borders in order to put the situation with migrants and refugees in the Una-Sana Canton under control.”

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