In the case of a massive influx of immigrants in B&H, the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs is responsible only for certain segments of the procedure. In order to effectively solve immigrant crisis, significant finances and a coordinated response from several relevant institutions and agencies in B&H are required.
The Service for Foreigners’ Affairs emphasized that we are witnessing lately that immigrants are intensively using the Western Balkan route after crossing the Turkish-Greek border, moving to Hungary through Greece, Macedonia and Serbia, which resulted in a massive influx of immigrants in this region, primarily in Serbia, with which B&H borders, and which reflected on the security situation in that country.
“Actualization of the West Balkan route recently led to the response of the Hungarian authorities in terms of building the protective fence on its border with Serbia, in order to prevent immigrants from entering into Hungary and the Schengen area illegally. On the other hand, it is evident that the situation regarding migrants in the region, especially Macedonia and Serbia, is culminating in the last 30 days since thousands of people are coming in these countries every day, where the primary challenge is finding accommodation for these people, their transport, food and drink, medical care and legal assistance, while it also raises the question of the maintenance of public order and peace, by preventing conflicts with the locals and the prevention of criminal acts,” as announced from the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs.
They added that the influx of immigrants into our country can be expected, since Hungarian authorities fully built the protective fence on the entire length of the border with Serbia, and that they engaged additional police and military forces at the border for protection and changed legislative for illegal border crossing which can lead to the prison sentences.
When we talk about prevention, the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs emphasized that after Croatia accessed the European Union, considering increased problem of immigrants movement through the countries of the region and their presence in Serbia, the Service adopted the Operational plan which predicted continued series of increased activities and measures of the Service regarding prevention and stopping of illegal migration, since there were certain estimation that this moment might effect migration routes of movement across the territory of B&H.
(Source: klix.ba)
