Since the beginning of the migrant crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), there have been discussions about whether the burden of this crisis should be borne by everyone or whether it is a cemented “exclusivity” of the Federation of BiH (FBiH). Since 2018, no reception center has been opened in Republika Srpska (RS).
“Don’t give us lessons about humanity. If you are so humane, build centers at your place, and we will enable them to reach you on the cleanest trains and buses as soon as they enter BiH,” said the then Minister of Security of BiH Fahrudin Radoncic in 2020, during the largest migrant crisis, after a meeting with representatives of the RS authorities in Banja Luka.
Sending a message to Brussels about the growing pressure to open reception centers, Radoncic warned that BiH does not have the money to receive such a large number of people whose only goal is the European Union (EU) and not BiH.
Same attitudes
Since then, several waves of migrants have washed over BiH, especially in the Una-Sana Canton (USC), which is still the most frequent destination for migrants who want to reach Croatia and the EU via Serbia and BiH. The USC authorities requested that this burden be transferred evenly to the entire country, but this was not acceptable to the RS.
“We also have clear policies regarding migrants. When we asked for it to be said that no migrant can enter BiH, and whoever enters will be immediately deported, and when we proposed it, they pretended to be humanitarians. Now go ahead and deal with this issue of a humanitarian nature. We in RS will not build camps for migrants,” Dodik was categorical, during the migrant wave of 2021 and the increasingly strong demands from Brussels that the migrant crisis be alleviated by an even distribution in BiH.
Nothing has changed since then regarding the accommodation of migrants in BiH, for which several reception centers have been provided on the territory of the FBiH. Everything is financed mainly with money from the EU, and several wild camps in the USC have been closed. There are currently about 2.600 migrants in BiH, and half of them are outside the reception centers. The number of migrants is increasing every day, and the reason is the beginning of the implementation of the agreement on the readmission of BiH and Croatia, due to which Croatia returns migrants to the countries from which they arrived.
Selective readmission
The Prime Minister of USC, Mustafa Ruznic, said that in order to protect the citizens, he had to ask for the reaction of the authorities in an open letter.
“What I will insist on is that the agreement on readmission is respected by the Republic of Serbia, that is, that the migrants who came to BiH from Serbia return there. In addition, I request that migrants who return to BiH from Croatia be evenly distributed in all seven temporary reception centers in BiH”, said Ruznic.
At the height of the migrant crisis in BiH, there was speculation that there was an agreement between the authorities of Serbia and RS that migrants would be released at the eastern border in order to relieve pressure in Serbia, and migrants would be transferred from the territory of the RS to one of the cantons in the FBiH. On the other hand, although it was signed several years ago, the agreement on the readmission of BiH and Serbia is hardly being implemented because only 20 migrants returned to Serbia in the first three months of this year. Earlier it was said that the border of BiH is porous because there are not enough members of the Border Police of BiH, which is why the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RS sent its police to the border on several occasions, DW reports.
E.Dz.
