The Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Zoran Tegeltija, stated that Bosnia and Herzegovina, like any other country in the Western Balkans, cannot cope with the migrant crisis on its own, but that it is of great importance that the Presidency of BiH, perhaps for the first time, agreed on this issue.
“I am very satisfied with the fact that the meeting of the Presidency of BiH with the Minister of Security passed in such a way that the positions were harmonized and that there were unique conclusions,” Tegeltija pointed out in an interview, BHRT reports.
Tegeltija reminded that BiH is taking the issue of migration more seriously at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, when the traditional routes of migrants to Western Europe from Serbia to Hungary and Croatia were abandoned and when they turned to the Drina River, which was the message that someone has decided that migrants move through BiH.
“You have a situation where the EU looks quite favorably on migrants on its borders in Greece and Bulgaria, and then on the border with BiH, soldiers practically defend the EU borders from the passage of migrants,” Tegeltija emphasized.
He reminded of the position of the Council of Ministers that it is necessary for migrants who are not legal, who do not have an asylum application and who come from countries not covered by the war, to return to their countries, and to the request that migrants be removed from the streets because they endanger the security of BiH citizens.
“So far, we have not agreed on these issues within BiH, and since the very beginning of the migrant crisis, only the Republika Srpska has continuously confirmed its views on migrants,” Tegeltija said.
