The Migrant Crisis Task Force of the Una-Sana Canton (USC) plans to close all reception camps in Bihac and Velika Kladusa by the end of the year, except for the Lipa camp, where all migrants staying in the USC would be accepted.
Mustafa Ruznic, the Prime Minister of the USC, told that currently, the highest priority is to close the reception camp in Velika Kladusa, where there are now a little more than 500 users.
“We have successfully resolved some burning issues so far, and among other things, we = closed Sedra. We aim to enter the upcoming winter only with the Lipa camp and thus limit the stay of migrants in urban areas, which has been one of our biggest problems so far,” emphasized Ruznic.
Namely, the works on the construction of the container settlement, near the Lipa area, which should accommodate a maximum of 1.500 migrants, are almost finished, and the local authorities have assessed that number as optimal and acceptable when it comes to this canton. The mentioned settlement should be put into use at the beginning of September, and migrants from other camps will be moved there, which will be closed afterward.
The Mayor of Bihac, Suhret Fazlic, stressed that the number of migrants staying in that city has significantly decreased and that the joint activities of the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs of BiH and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USC on evicting migrants from abandoned and devastated facilities to Camp Lipa have contributed to that. During those actions, about a thousand migrants have been moved to Lipa so far, and the facilities where they stayed have been cleaned and sealed.
“Once we will see the day when the migrant crisis will be a thing of the past, while a positive circumstance, and we expect that it will happen, is that the facilities in which investments were made to accommodate migrants will become the property of the city,” Fazlic pointed out.
Although it was previously envisaged that a new wave of migrants would happen in the USC during the spring and summer, their number is currently far smaller than in previous years at the same time. The reason for that is the increase in the price of the route that they used earlier to arrive, as well as the more efficient work of the competent state institutions, which has contributed to migrants deciding on other routes to reach the European Union (EU), Nezavisne writes.
E.Dz.
