The government of the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity has donated 50,000 marks (some € 25,000) to Bihac, on Thursday, a city in Bosnia’s other semi-autonomous entity shared by Bosniaks and Croats, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The decision to help deal with the migrant issue in the country was approved at the Thursday government session, said the RS Finance Minister, Zora Vidovic.

The decision came amid the increasing number of migrants in the entity’s administrative centre, Banja Luka, where citizens are reaching out and handing out food and clothes to them, but some also fear them because there were cases where migrants attacked and robbed Banja Luka residents for money and other belongings.

The RS government said in early 2018 they would not support the creation of migrant centres in this entity, nor will they receive any donations for their accommodation. They claim the entity does not have the capacities to care for the migrants humanely.

However, more and more migrants can be seen in the streets of Banja Luka where groups of up to 20 of them are waiting for the night to continue their journey to western Europe.

So far, the towns struggling the most to cope with the rising number of migrants are Bihac and Velika Kladusa, two northern-most cities, closest to the border with Croatia. Migrants here hope they would cross the border quickly and enter the EU.

This year’s data says that some 1,000 new migrants entered the country, and around 4,000 of them are residing in migrant centres across the country, in Bihac, Sarajevo, Mostar, Cazin, and Velika Kladusa.

(€ 1 = 1.955 marks)