Three officers were injured by migrants in Bihac during a police raid of one of the local houses where they found 130 undocumented migrants, the police spokesperson of Una-Sana Canton Ale Siljdedic told N1 on Friday.
“The cantonal Inspection Agency is conducting searches of private homes in search of illegal migrants and they are assisted by the local police. We received an information that 135 migrants are located in one of the houses, which is too many,” Siljdedic said.
“Three officers were injured after entering the said house when they heard gunshots,” he noted, adding that they suffered minor injuries.
During the search of the house, the police found 130 migrants, mostly elderly without any identification documents.
The local authorities in this North-Western Canton, bordering Croatia, used three busses and several police vehicles to transport the migrants to the local migrant centre.
“The house was illegally rented to the said migrants. It will now be sealed and should the owner break the seal and re-enter it, she will be fined and the court will set her a prison sentence of up to six months,” the spokesperson said.
The Una-Sana Canton has been especially interesting to migrants entering the country from the direction of Serbia and Montenegro because it is closest to the border with the EU.
Last year, 25,000 migrants entered the country and competent authorities estimate that there are around 9,000 of them in the country right now.
Migrants started flocking to Bosnia after Bulgaria and Hungary imposed strict border controls and stopped migrants from entering their country, effectively blocking the migrants’ “Balkan route.”
They have no wish of staying in Bosnia or eastern EU member states, though, but want to continue their path to Western EU states like Germany, France and Austria, hoping to find a better life.
Of the 9,000 migrants residing in the country, authorities say only about 8 percent are refugees, the rest being economic migrants.
The US Ambassador to Bosnia, Eric Nelson, and the Deputy US Secretary of State, Matthew Palmer, are to visit Bihac during the day where they would meet with the Bihac Mayor Suhret Fazlic and cantonal Prime Minister Mustafa Ruzic.
Despite the fact that the reason for their arrival was never mentioned, it is expected they would discuss the migrant situation in this part of the country amid the recent big influx of migrants.
