FBiH Minister: Our police agencies could identify ISIS fighters among migrants

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The police agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina cooperate well with each other and would easily be able to identify any ISIS fighters who escaped from Syrian camps if they tried to come to abuse to migrant crisis to come to the country - which is not likely to happen anyway - the Interior Affairs Minister of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) region told N1 on Tuesday.

There is no need to panic, he stressed.

“Panic is being created by information which keeps changing daily. Of course, we should be on standby, follow the situation, exchange date. I think that this route will not go toward the Balkans, but will go towards Libya and Afghanistan,” Aljosa Campara said.

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The Minister stressed that Bosnia’s police agencies are set up according to the constitutional and legal setup in the country.

“We have a decentralised police structure, but there certainly is cooperation. Especially when it comes to exchanging information,” he said.

Campara explained that taking over and processing Bosnian citizens returning from foreign battlefields is within the competency of the State Security Ministry and Prosecutor’s Office and that other bodies will assist whenever necessary.

Campara mentioned the possibility that ISIS fighters might abuse the current situation and infiltrate the waves of migrants coming into the country.

“This is the reason for the increased caution. I think that police agencies and border authorities, which have lists naming those people, will do their job,” he said.

He added that the chance of ISIS fighters crossing all the borders toward Bosnia without being noticed is very small, but that there is no “100 percent guarantee” this will not happen either.