In the first three months of this year, the Service for Affairs with Foreigners registered and identified 6,644 illegal migrants, and currently 1,675 migrants and asylum seekers are staying in temporary reception centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The largest number of migrants comes from Syria 2,916, followed by Afghanistan 1,023, Morocco 686, Turkey 512 and Egypt 235, the Service for Affairs with Foreigners said.
In the same period, 169 migrants were returned to their countries of origin or countries from which they illegally entered Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to the data of the BiH Border Police, since the beginning of the year, more than 3,000 people have been caught illegally crossing or attempting to illegally cross the border, most of whom are citizens of Syria, Turkey and Afghanistan.
In the Border Police of BiH, it was said to Srna news agency that during the previous year and in the first three months of this year, they submitted 83 reports against 177 persons to the competent prosecutor’s offices on suspicion of having committed 110 criminal acts of human smuggling.
They also reminded of the recent “Pyramid” action, the goal of which was to prevent organized smuggling of migrants, in which 14 people were arrested and searches were carried out at 16 locations in the Una-Sana, Zenica-Doboj and Sarajevo Cantons.
The arrested suspects are suspected of having tried to smuggle or smuggled more than 600 people, including more than 100 minors, through the territory of BiH in the last six months as part of an international organized group, and in doing so, they made a financial profit of more than six million BAM, the Border Police stated.
Photo: archive
