The only necessary and swift measure concerning migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina is extraditing them to their countries of origin as soon as their identities are confirmed, Bosnia's Serb Presidency member Milorad Dodik said on Sunday, following the session of his SNSD party's executive board.
“We demand full sterilisation from migrants on our territories and securing a full safety of our people,” Dodik told the reporters, adding that Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb-majority region, will not allow any reception centres for migrants to be set up on its territory.
“It is unacceptable that some western institutions send demands more and more often to have the migrant issue distributed across Bosnia and Herzegovina. We reject that and won't take part in that,” he underlined.
Dodik's statement comes amid a new wave of migrant arrivals to Bosnia, in the wake of the relaxed coronavirus restriction measures across the region and end of the lockdown. After entering the country's eastern border, the migrants move to its northwest hoping they would cross the border with the European Union and reach their final destinations across Europe.
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But, as Croatia keeps its borders closed for illegal migrants, they are stranded in the towns near the Bosnia-Croatia border, mostly accommodated in a few internationally-funded migrant centres but also occupying public areas in urban zones.
The authorities of the northwestern Una-Sana Canton (USK) recently addressed the European Union officials, expressing concerns about the temporary migrant camps set up in the canton's urban zones and demanding their shutdown.
But, the warnings they would close the camps in the city and open another open-air camp for migrants modelled after the infamous ‘Vucjak camp’, which was closed last year under the pressure of the international organisations, led the European Commission's officials to threaten with cutting the financial support for the migration management in Bosnia.
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“The Commission expects the cantonal authorities to respect the domestic legislation and the authority of the competent state institutions, and to facilitate their activities and those of international partners. This is the only way to ensure the security of citizens of your Canton in the current situation. Should this not be the case, the Commission will reconsider its assistance in the area of migration management that Bosnia and Herzegovina and in particular the Una-Sana Canton have been benefiting so far,” said a letter that the EC's commissioner Christian Danielsson wrote to the head of USK government, Mustafa Ruznic.
