Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH’s) Security Minister Dragan Mektic met on Monday with representatives of the State Prosecutor’s Office and the Netherlands Police Warner Tan Kate and Monique Mos.
At the meeting, interlocutors talked about the strengthening of co-operation in the field of migration, particularly in the fight against trafficking and smuggling.
Minister Mektic highlighted that BiH gives great importance to this problem since in the last year, police agencies discovered and broken up 20 criminal groups.
Addressing the migration problem, Mektic said that he did not see any serious EU efforts to close the existing route via the Western Balkans, and that instead, only the aid for humanitarian assistance to migrants was offered during their transit.
“The solution needs to be sought at the source of the problem and stop migration, which is the external borders of the European Union in Greece and Bulgaria. Now, we are dealing with the consequences, “Mektić highlighted.
He stressed that there is no cooperation between the countries of the region when it comes to this problem and as a negative example, he chose Croatia, since there are statements of migrants that the police physically abuse them, as well as footage showing that migrants are being forced to return illegally to BiH.
During the meeting, delegations discussed the possibility of exchanging information on trafficking in human beings and training of police officers to facilitate the detection of victims trafficking.
