The Joint Commission for Defense and Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina received the Information on the situation in the field of migration in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first six months of 2023, which was prepared by the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The joint commission did not support the delegation initiative of Kemal Ademović, which requests the Council of Ministers of BiH, and especially the Ministry of Security of BiH, to urgently initiate the procedure for expanding the capacity of the Agency for education and professional development of personnel for a minimum of 100 trainees within three months from the day of adoption of the initiative.
Ademović said that, after considering the report on the work of the border service for 2022, he came up with the idea to launch this initiative “because the report on the work of the border service indicates a large number of unfilled jobs in the border service”.
He added that, considering that the existing Agency for training and professional development of personnel, primarily police officers, has a current capacity of 150 trainees and that one cycle lasts seven months, if it only did professional training of personnel for the border service, it would take three and a half years.
“For this reason, I initiated the initiative to expand the capacity of this agency by another 100 trainees, so that it would have a total of 250, in order to overcome this problem with missing police officers in the border service in a shorter period of time. Of course, this implies that there will be those from other agencies who will attend that training,” explained Ademović.
The member of the Joint Commission, Marina Pendeš, said that she thinks that the Council of Ministers of BiH is responsible for this issue and in that sense does not support initiatives in this way, “because there is a minister of security, there are people in the Council of Ministers who must take care, not only of the border of BiH, but also to the growing wave of illegal migration that threatens BiH”.
“In this sense, I am convinced that the Council of Ministers of BiH will soon have to discuss the draft budget for 2024 and through that draft budget will have to recognize these requests, because I am convinced that both the Minister of Security and the Director of the Border Police have certainly submitted a request for an increase in financial funds in order to increase the capacities of the agency, that is, the border service. It makes no sense for us to adopt initiatives, and there is a ministry, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and all of that has to do with budget funds,” Pendeš believes.
She stated that she is one of those who will always support any defense and security institution in the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but in a way that the Council of Ministers does.
Ademović replied, saying that this problem did not arise in one or two years, “this problem has arisen for many years and there is no continuity in filling the border service”.
Member of the Joint Commission Sredoje Nović said that until today he has not even seen the strategy of the Border Service, exactly how much and how the issue of the border service should be solved organizationally, how it should be solved systematically and solved in the long term.
“The simplest thing is to tell all of us that we need 100 people now, minimum. This is not about 100 people, members of the future police officers in the border service as physical persons. We need to know that here there should be, first of all, a plan about whether these capacities can be organized in the existing capacity of the existing school. I don’t think that’s possible,” said Nović.
He added that it is not only about the border service, but also about members of SIPA, the Directorate for the Coordination of Police Bodies…
“The last thing, or the first, are funds that are not planned in the budget,” said Nović, adding that this issue should be adequately and systematically resolved.
Commission member Radovan Kovačević believes that the right address for solving this problem is the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that it is necessary for the Council of Ministers to make a statement about it, to secure budget funds for it and “that this is the only right way to go, if we want to solve this issue”.
Deputy Minister of Security of BiH Ivica Bošnjak said that, unfortunately, this problem is not only experienced by the border police, “they also have entity and cantonal MUPs”.
“As for the Ministry of Security, we are in constant contact with the leadership of the agencies – both the State Agency for Investigation and Protection and the Directorate for the Coordination of Police Bodies and the Border Police. The border police is now announcing a competition, and currently 150 members are going to school for training,” said Bošnjak.
He added that he agrees that this is a problem and that it should be solved systematically.
“I think that’s how we approach the problem. I think that this Council of Ministers has the capacity to look at, analyze the situation, consolidate complete data and propose to the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina how to overcome this problem,” Bošnjak said.
After the discussion, the members of the Joint Commission did not support Ademović’s initiative, Fena reports.
