The trend of emigration, especially of young people, from BiH is growing. According to the Union for sustainable return and integration, more than 80.000 people emigrated from BiH in the past two years.
Not only young and educated people leave BiH anymore, but entire families, regardless of nationality, leave as well. Such practice is especially frequent in border areas in BiH and in returnee communities. President of the Union for sustainable return and integration in BiH Mirhunisa Zukić and the delegate in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH Senad Šepić commented on the issue of emigration from BiH.
“In our research of registering the most vulnerable families in BiH which we launched in July 2013, we came to disastrous results indicating that in places where the best return of populations was recorded, such as villages around Zvornik, entire families are selling everything they own and moving to France. Similar situation was in Bijeljina, Janja, Bratunac, Vlasenica and other places. In the past two years, more than 5.000 people left from Brčko only,” Zukić said.
The main reason why increasingly large number of citizens decide to leave BiH is poor economic situation, impossibility of employment, especially of young people, and the lack of perspective in general.
“Not only Bosniak returnees go abroad, but the Serb and Croat populations as well. When it comes to Posavina, there is also alarming data about the number of residents leaving BiH. Then, there is the western part of the country including Livno, Tomislavgrad, Drvar and other places – entire local communities leave the country and go abroad,” Zukić said.
Zukić added that the Union for sustainable development and integration in BiH is preparing for one great campaign with the aim of acting preventively and preventing the emigration as much as possible.
“We want to present to the people the real image of going abroad, because those are not promised lands as people often think before they decide to leave BiH. Institutions of BiH must systematically start solving the problem of mass emigration of population. So far, we have had promises by certain ministries, but we must offer concrete things to the people,” Zukić concluded.
As a delegate in the national parliament, Šepić highlighted that he requested a convocation of joint session of both houses of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH with the item on the agenda considering the “Prevention of negative trend of emigration from BiH, with special emphasis on the emigration of young people, and defining of the youth employment program in 2016 and 2017”. Unfortunately, the Joint Collegium rejected the proposal.
Previous experiences indicate that people would emigrate from BiH less if given an opportunity for a decent job in their country. Otherwise, the citizens are ready to take the greatest risks by embarking upon precarious departures abroad, young people especially.
(Source: klix.ba)
