The statement by the Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Nenad Nesic, that he will not allow the return of children from Syria until it is established that they are not a threat to security, as well as that he does not know what they were “afflicted with”, will deepen the stigma and make it difficult for them to return, warn experts and families.
Last August, the Council of Ministers adopted a plan and program for the return of citizens of BiH from Syria and Iraq. It regulates the issues of safe, humane, and controlled return of BiH citizens, along with security checks, establishing the identity and citizenship of persons covered by repatriation, and providing diplomatic-consular, legal, and humanitarian assistance.
International humanitarian organizations have been warning for years that children trapped in camps in Syria after the fall of the terrorist organization ISIL are facing difficult living conditions and have called on the countries they come from to organize their return.
On Wednesday, June 7th, during a meeting with Oliver Spasovski, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia, Nesic stated that his priority is the safety of “our children” and that, as Minister of Security, he will not allow the return of citizens of BiH from Syria.
“When I say this, I mean the children who live and were born in BiH. I don’t know if there was any effect on the children who are in Syria today and I don’t know if they will be a security threat to the security of BiH, and I will not allow them, neither as a father nor as a Minister of Security, regardless of pressure from anyone in BiH, the return of anyone who may pose a threat to the safety of our children or my children,” Nesic pointed out.
“Those children in Syria, until they pass all the necessary checks, and I will ask for additional checks for all our citizens, will not enter the country while I am the minister,” he reiterated.
Words in public spaces have consequences
Public speech, including media coverage of vulnerable categories, must be sensitive and aligned with all principles and regulations, emphasizes sociologist Esad Bajtal. The people in the camps did not all come to the war zone of their own free will, and some of them were born in those circumstances, which is why all returnees should never be labeled as people who participated in the war.
Bajtal believes that the minister, due to the position he holds, must be more cautious in commenting, especially on such sensitive issues.
So far, the only organized return of BiH citizens from Syria took place in December 2019, when several persons who participated in conflicts on foreign battlefields in Syria were handed over to the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH. Then the Ministry of Security announced that six women and twelve children had arrived, and the whole process took place with the cooperation of several state institutions of BiH with the Government of the United States (U.S.) and the U.S. Embassy in BiH.
Dozens of people are waiting to return to BiH
There are still dozens of BiH citizens in Syrian camps, among whom the largest number are children. The Ministry of Security believes that before the first organized return of former residents of the so-called Islamic State, there were 45 men and 55 women from BiH in Syria.
Children live in camps with their mothers, in tents, in conditions that international organizations have assessed as very difficult. In the last few months, several countries have organized the return of their citizens, but there are still tens of thousands of children and women in camps in Syria, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
