prijava
SARAJEVO, March 21 (FENA) - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Zvizdić said at a press conference in Sarajevo that Bosnia and Herzegovina wants to be part of a European solution for the situation with migrants.
"We continue to adhere to the three principles that we set out at the beginning, which is to be human, to respect international law when one seeks international legal protection at our border and to respect our laws on asylum and foreign nationals," Zvizdić said.
He pointed out that, if the border to the EU remains completely closed, “then we will also do a full closure of our border to the eastern neighbors.”
“We need to resolve relations with our neighbors. At this moment, the second largest number of migrant population here are Iranians who come to Serbia as tourists, and then cross over to BiH as migrants,” said Zvizdić.
He added that they do not have information about massive violation of asylum laws. In his words, 99 percent of those who enter BiH get registered. Almost all of them enter BiH with a request for asylum.
“Of the 23,000 that entered since January 2018, almost all of them have applied for asylum, but an actual request for asylum was made by about 1,600 migrants. Others have practically left Bosnia and Herzegovina, and at this moment, the Ministry of Security and the Coordination Committee estimate that around 4,000 migrants reside in BiH, and that is the capacity we have in accommodation facilities where they are currently located in Sarajevo, East Sarajevo and Una-Sana Canton,” explained Zvizdić.
Our intent is, he added, to strengthen the border. He reminded that last time they made a decision to transfer the new contingent of police officers to the border with Serbia, who will come from the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies, partly from SIPA, and partly from the RS MoI.
“We shall once again request to send police officers from the FBiH MoI, because this is not a case of transfer of competences, or any violation of the laws and procedures, but only an intent to strengthen the border of BiH,” pointed out Zvizdić, noting that majority of migrants do not enter BiH through official border crossings, but they cross the Sava River, etc.We are talking about some 300 kilometers and we need a lot of people to strengthen the border."
We have an offer from Hungary and some other countries to help us with their capacities and specialists, police officers, who would not be armed.
We will make these decisions very soon. If it is true that there is large number of migrants who are currently in Greece and that they plan to move west in May, then we will really consider full closing of the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina," Zvizdić concluded.
(FENA) S. R.
