Security Minister on migrant crisis: All countries failed

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All European countries have failed to effectively deal with the migrant crisis, allowing organized crime to control the influx of migrants, Bosnia’s Security Minister, Dragan Mektic, said on Monday.

“We have all failed this test, and organised crime took over the route. No country should have allowed for this to happen,” Mektic said after returning from a meeting in Brussels where European countries were discussing what to do about the uncontrolled arrival of hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants on the continent.

“We have to come up with a more effective prevention,” he said, explaining that police forces from Southeast Europe will be working together.

Since the route through Hungary and Croatia was closed, thousands of migrants have since the beginning of the year illegally entered Bosnia in order to try to cross into Croatia from there.

“There are more than 7,000 illegal migrants registered in Bosnia and 600 of them submitted asylum requests. Not one of those was granted, which shows that the migrants do not want asylum, they only formally submit a request so they can justify their stay in Bosnia,” he said, adding that the migrants are “abusing” the procedure.

The Government of the Federation (FBiH), one of the two semi-autonomous entites in the country, had provided the Usivak barracks building and the Agrokomerc company building to the accommodate the migrants, Mektic said, adding that Austria had donated 50 specialised tents with air conditioning and heating for migrant accomodation purposes.

The Czech Republic will donate a million Euro to Bosnia to help the Government deal with the issue and buy equipment that would allow it to monitor its border more efficiently, he said.